A wild winter storm continued to envelop much of the US yesterday, bringing blinding blizzards, freezing rain, flooding and life-threatening cold that created mayhem for those traveling for the Christmas holiday.
The storm that arrived earlier in the week downed power lines, littered highways with piles of vehicles in deadly accidents and led to mass flight cancelations.
The storm was nearly unprecedented in its scope, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico.
Photo: AP
About 60 percent of the US population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the US National Weather Service said.
Freezing rain coated much of the Pacific Northwest in a layer of ice, while people in the northeastern US faced the threat of coastal and inland flooding.
The frigid temperatures and gusty winds were expected to produce “dangerously cold wind chills across much of the central and eastern US this holiday weekend,” the weather service said, adding that the conditions “will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for travelers that become stranded.”
Photo: AP
“In some areas, being outdoors could lead to frostbite in minutes,” it said.
Adding to the woes were power outages that by late Friday were still affecting more than 1 million homes and businesses, according to the Web site PowerOutage, which tracks utility reports.
As millions of Americans were traveling ahead of Christmas, more than 5,700 flights within, into or out of the US were canceled on Friday, tracking site FlightAware said.
Photo: REUTERS
Multiple highways were closed and crashes claimed at least six lives, officials said.
At least two people died in a massive pileup involving about 50 vehicles on the Ohio Turnpike.
A Kansas City, Missouri, driver was on Thursday killed after skidding into a creek, and three drivers died in separate crashes on icy northern Kansas roads on Wednesday.
In Canada, WestJet on Friday canceled all flights at Toronto Pearson International Airport, as meteorologists warned of a potential once-in-a-decade weather event.
In Mexico, migrants camped near the US border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a US Supreme Court decision on COVID-19 pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum.
Forecasters said that a “bomb cyclone” — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, causing blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.
Even people in Florida were braced for unusually chilly weather as rare freeze warnings were issued for large parts of the state over the holiday weekend.
Residents were rushing to get homeless people out of the cold.
Nearly 170 adults and children were early on Friday keeping warm at a shelter and a warming center in Detroit, Michigan, that are designed to hold 100 people.
“This is a lot of extra people,” but it was not an option to turn anyone away, said Faith Fowler, executive director of Cass Community Social Services, which runs the two facilities.
Emergency weather shelters in Portland, Oregon, called for volunteers amid high demand and staffing issues as snow, freezing rain, ice and frigid temperatures descended upon the area.
On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Harlie Young was huddled with five children and her father around a wood stove as 3.6m snow drifts blocked the house.
“We’re just trying to look on the bright side that they’re still coming and they didn’t forget us,” she said on Friday.
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