Frigid temperatures, some that felt as cold as minus-34°C, on Friday moved across the US east coast as the region dug out from a massive winter storm that brought more than 30cm of snow, hurricane-force winds and coastal flooding a day earlier.
Forecasters predicted strong winds and record-breaking cold air to hang around through the weekend.
Jess Flarity, a 32-year-old visiting a friend in Concord, New Hampshire, said the deep chill reminded him of his time in Alaska.
Photo: AP
“I’ve been in minus 60 [minus-51°C] before, so minus 20 [minus-21°C] doesn’t frighten me,” he said as he waited for a bus back to Boston. “But I did have to prepare, bring some extra cold weather gear — gloves, boots and those kinds of things.”
In Portland, Maine, Jeanne Paterak said the cold snap revived her worries about the effects of climate change.
“We are seeing some historic temperatures and everyone will be vulnerable,” she said as she stocked up on milk, vegetables and juice at a supermarket.
This morning was expected to bring the coldest temperatures from Portland, Maine, to Washington.
The arctic blast could make temperatures feel as low as minus-26°C to minus-32°C from Philadelphia to Boston, and make residents of states like Maryland and Virginia shiver from temperatures ranging from minus-10°C to minus-9°C.
The wind chill could make it feel like minus-37°C in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, the US National Weather Service said.
Thursday’s storm packed wind gusts of more than 113kph and dumped as much as 46cm of snow in some places.
It caused school and business closings, airline and rail service cancelations or reductions and thousands of utilities outages, many of them restored quickly. Some ferry services also had to be shut down.
Flights resumed at airports along the US east coast after hundreds were canceled on Thursday.
The storm caused more than 3.8 million liters of untreated sewage to spill into Nantucket Harbor after a huge sewer main break, Massachusetts officials said.
In Gloucester, north of Boston, about 50 cars were destroyed in a school parking lot after a storm surge submerged the lot under about 1m of salt water.
In New Jersey, gusty winds on Friday morning carried flames from a vacant building across the street to two other buildings. The flames also spread to two structures adjacent to the vacant building, damaging a total of five in Newark. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.
In the south, the winter weather forced portable toilets to be put in place outside Mississippi’s Capitol after pipes burst and it caused iguanas to become sluggish and topple from trees in South Florida.
Residents of southeast Georgia were treated to a rare 15cm of snow.
In New England, powerful winds brought coastal flooding that reached historic levels in some communities.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday confirmed that water levels in Boston broke the record set during a massive blizzard in 1978.
The flooding sent large trash containers floating down Boston streets, forced the shutdown of a subway station as water cascaded down the steps and prompted rescues of people trapped in cars and homes by rapidly rising waters in several Massachusetts communities.
In Scituate, south of Boston, residents spent Friday trying to dry out their basements before more frigid temperatures arrived.
At least 10 people died in weather-related accidents, including a 13-year-old girl who was sickened by carbon monoxide in an apartment building in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
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