At least three deaths were attributed to severe weather in the US as heavy snow and high winds snarled air and ground transportation during a busy holiday travel period.
More than 500 flight cancelations and 5,700 delays were reported on Friday as the winter storm blanketed areas from the north central plains and the Midwest with 20cm to 30cm of snow.
As much snow, if not more, was forecast to fall in the coming days in the southwestern state of New Mexico, along with a deluge of rain in some southern and eastern states — ruining New Year travel plans for thousands of Americans.
Photo: AFP / NOAA
Millions more in the South were warned of potential flooding from heavy rains.
A 58-year-old woman in Louisiana was killed on Wednesday evening when lightning struck a tree, which then fell on her home, TV station WDSU reported.
In Kansas, police said that icy roads on Thursday caused a fatal car crash on an interstate highway.
Another crash involving a snow plow and a car in North Dakota claimed one life.
More than 6,500 flights were delayed and about 800 more were canceled on Thursday, according to the flight tracking Web site FlightAware.
Some airline passengers reported being stranded for days.
“I didn’t want to spend three days in the airport, missing out on the holidays — New Year’s and all that,” Anthony Scott told Texas TV station KDFW at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
“I have to go back to work the first of the year. So this is my time,” he said. “This was my little vacation. I’m not trying to spend it in the airport.”
Numerous roads were closed on Thursday in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Kansas and Iowa. Ground crews worked to clear affected areas, but many remained packed with snow and ice on Friday.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation said that advisories warning against travel remained in effect.
“Roads are icy, blowing snow is still limiting visibility,” the agency said. “Crews are working but mother nature is making safe travel tough.”
North Dakota on Friday lifted a no-travel advisory that had been issued for the entire east side of the state, even as drifting snow continued to frustrate drivers.
US National Weather Service officials in Minnesota cautioned that roads in the upper Midwestern state were cloaked in snow. The weather service predicted the treacherous weather would continue through the weekend across the country.
Heavy snow was expected in the southwestern state of New Mexico from a new storm, with as much as 18 inches possible, the agency said.
To the south, heavy rains were forecast in the central Gulf Coast, in the Florida Panhandle and stretching east to the mid-Atlantic. A risk of flash flooding was possible in a few areas.
The nasty weather was still no match for a colossal blizzard that smothered the eastern US in January 2016.
That storm shut down New York City and Washington, leaving 15 people dead and affecting about 85 million residents.
Forecasters said that storm — dubbed “Snowzilla” — dumped 56.4cm in Washington and 63.8cm of snow in New York’s Central Park, the third-highest accumulation since records began in 1869.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing