US: Intense snowfall and bitter cold overtook areas of the eastern United States on Christmas Day, putting millions of Americans in peril and causing at least 31 weather-related deaths.
A catastrophe was developing in Buffalo, located in western New York, where a blizzard had trapped the city and prevented emergency personnel from getting to high-impact areas.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a native of Buffalo, described, “It is (like) going to a warzone, and the vehicles along the sides of the roads are shocking,” There, eight-foot (2.4 metre) snow drifts and power outages have created potentially fatal situations.
Hochul advised people in the region to stay indoors and told reporters Sunday night that locals were still dealing with a “very hazardous life-threatening situation.”
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Christmas without electricity
On Christmas morning, more than 200,000 people in various eastern states awoke without electricity, and many more had their travel plans for the holiday disrupted, even though the five-day storm that brought blizzard conditions and fierce winds was beginning to abate.
The weekend’s severe weather left homeowners in homes covered in ice and snow and stranded holiday visitors with thousands of flights cancelled. It also dropped wind chill readings below freezing in all 48 contiguous US states.
Nine states have reported 31 verified weather-related fatalities, including four in Colorado who presumably perished from exposure and at least 12 in New York, where officials feared the toll would probably grow.
Authorities recounted historically hazardous conditions in the frequently snow-covered Buffalo area, including hours-long whiteouts and bodies found in cars and under snow banks as rescuers tried to find the people who needed help.
The lakeside metropolis’ international airport is still closed until Tuesday, and driving is still prohibited throughout the entirety of Erie County.
Hochul remarked that the cruelty had topped the area’s previous historic snowfall of 1977 in “intensity, the longevity, and the severity of the winds.” He said that it will be remembered for years as the “blizzard of ’22.”
Some residents were not anticipated to get power back until Tuesday due to frozen electric substations; one frozen substation was reportedly covered in 18 feet of snow, according to a senior county official.
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“The situation is really terrible”
The Great Lakes region of western New York was still experiencing blizzard conditions on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, with “further snow accumulations of 2 to 3 feet through tonight.”
One couple in Buffalo, across the border from Canada, told AFP on Saturday that they would not be making the 10-minute drive to visit their family for Christmas because the roads were entirely impassable.
A lot of fire departments aren’t even sending out vehicles for calls because the circumstances are so severe, according to 40-year-old Rebecca Bortolin.
For millions of people, a larger travel nightmare was in full force.
According to flight tracking website Flightaware.com, the storm, one of the worst in decades, forced the cancellation of more than 2,400 US flights on Sunday, in addition to the 3,500 flights cancelled on Saturday and the almost 6,000 aircraft cancelled on Friday.
On Christmas Day, travellers remained trapped or delayed at airports, including those in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, and New York.
Transportation
Some of the major transportation routes in the country, including the cross-country Interstate 70, had to be temporarily shut down due to road ice and white-out conditions.
Even as the country entered what is often the busiest travel season of the year, drivers were advised not to use the roadways.
Multiple power companies have urged millions of consumers to cut back on their usage in order to lessen rolling blackouts in locations like North Carolina and Tennessee as a result of the extreme weather’s strain on the nation’s electricity networks.
According to tracker poweroutage.us, approximately 1.7 million consumers were without energy at one point on Saturday in the bitter cold.
By Sunday night, the number had significantly decreased, but more than 70,000 clients in eastern regions were still without electricity.
In British Columbia, Canada, a bus rollover on Saturday left four people dead and 53 people hospitalised, including two who were still in serious condition early on Sunday. It is thought that the cause of the bus disaster was slippery roadways.
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of people in Ontario and Quebec were left without electricity, numerous flights in major cities were cancelled, and the passenger train service between Toronto and Ottawa was suspended.
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