Chicago (USA) – Of the mega winter storm sweeping across the United States is increasingly affecting the country’s infrastructure. The authorities said that almost 1.5 million households were without electricity, at least temporarily.
Heavy snowstorms are raging in the USA with temperatures as low as -48 degrees. © Scott Olson/Getty Images via AFP
Countless roads were closed on the eve of Christmas due to massive snowfall or dangerously slippery roads, and there were sometimes fatal accidents. Millions of US citizens had to cancel or at least change their travel plans for the festival.
The number of deaths rose to 17 on Saturday night (local time), according to the broadcaster NBC reported. The cause in almost all cases was weather-related traffic accidents, it said. According to the US weather service, the region around the five Great Lakes (“Great Lakes”) in the north-east of the country on the border with Canada is currently particularly badly affected.
The US Weather Service (NWS) spoke of a “historic” event. The temperatures have now fallen to as low as minus 48 degrees Celsius.
The size of the Arctic cold front is also exceptional. It stretched from the Canadian border in the north to the Mexican border in the south.
Several states declared states of emergency, including New York, Oklahoma and Kentucky. According to a website specializing in this, the states of North Carolina, Maine and Virginia were particularly affected by the power outages. On Friday evening (local time), around a million households were still in the dark.
Around 5,500 flights were canceled by Friday evening for weather reasons, with the airports in Seattle, New York, Chicago and Detroit being particularly affected.