Up to -48°C felt. The very violent winter storm, accompanied by freezing temperatures, which has been affecting the United States since Wednesday evening, continued to hit parts of the country on Saturday. It caused the death of at least 22 people, caused thousands of power cuts and the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) warned that the cold posed a deadly risk and urged Americans in affected areas to stay indoors. Because of the wind, felt temperature dropped to -48°C Friday, according to the same source.
“The storm is expected to last through the weekend, before temperatures return to seasonal norms by the middle of next week,” the NWS said. Until then, “if you have to travel or be outside, be prepared for extreme cold wearing multiple layers of clothing, and covering as much skin as possible,” the weather service urged Max. “In places, being outside could cause frostbite within minutes. »
1500 flights canceled this Sunday
The 17 victims officially identified at this stage by the authorities have not all been victims of the cold directly, some of them have died on the roads, which have become very dangerous. Such is the case in Ohio, where four people have died in storm-related crashes, Gov. Mike DeWine said. A total of eight states have reported deaths related to this exceptional winter storm.
In hard-hit New York, Governor Kathy Hochul deployed the National Guard to Erie County and Buffalo, the state’s main city, where officials said emergency services are nearing paralyzed. The situation is particularly impressive in Buffalo, located on the border with Canada.
A couple from this lakeside town said the roads were impassable, and they would not make the 10-minute journey to visit to their family for Christmas. And when the journey must be made by plane, there again, total blockage.
Air traffic is gradually improving with nearly 1,500 flights canceled on Sunday, against more than 3,400 the day before, according to the monitoring site Flightaware.com. “The most extreme disruptions are behind us,” US Transportation Minister Pete Buttigieg said on Twitter on Saturday.
Words that travelers stranded in airports such as Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit and New York clung to, hoping for a Christmas miracle.
Voltage on the electrical network
A bit everywhere in American cities, such as Denver or Chicago, shelters have been opened to accommodate people in need to allow them to warm up and protect them from the risk of hypothermia. Due to the very low temperatures, the pressure on the power grid was extremely high.
The operator in ten states in the American Northeast, PJM, called on the population to reduce their consumption all day Saturday, in order to avoid cuts. Some cities, notably in North Carolina, had to temporarily cut power due to high electricity demand, which left homes without heat, while temperatures are still extremely low.
In total, more than 200,000 homes were without power Sunday morning on the east coast, according to the site Poweroutage.usespecially in Maine and New York State.
On the Canadian side, the same mess in transport
Canada is also affected by the storm. Authorities have also issued severe weather warnings. 200,000 people are also without electricity, particularly in Ontario and Quebec.
VIA Rail, Canada’s rail transportation service, said all trains from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal would be suspended on December 25 following a train derailment, while “extreme weather conditions” led to numerous other cancellations.