Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzards, power outages and canceled holiday gatherings Friday due to a winter storm that weather forecasters said nearly unprecedented in its range, leaving about 60% of the US population facing some sort of winter weather advisory. or warning.
More than 200 million people were advised or warned on Friday, the National Weather Service said. The weather service’s map “depicts one of the largest ranges of Winter weather warning and unprecedented advice,” the forecasters said.
The power outage has left about 1.4 million homes and businesses in the dark, according to the website power cut, keep track of utility reports. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, ended the rotating blackout Friday afternoon but continued to urge households and businesses to conserve electricity. In Georgia, hundreds of people in Atlanta and northern parts of the state lost power and faced the possibility of freezing cold winds without heat.
And nearly 5,000 domestic, foreign and international flights WE was canceled on Friday, according to tracking website FlightAware, causing more mayhem as travelers try to get home for the holiday season.
Wendell Davis, who plays basketball with a team in France and is waiting at O’Hare in Chicago on Friday, “We have to stay optimistic,” said after a series of flight cancellations.
The great storm stretched from one border to another. In Canada, WestJet canceled all flights on Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, beginning at 9 a.m. as meteorologists in the country warned of a possible weather event. times in a decade.
And in Mexico, migrants waited near the US border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a US Supreme Court ruling on whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that caused many people cannot apply for asylum.
Weather forecasters say a bomb tornado – when atmospheric pressure drops very rapidly during a strong storm – has developed near the Great Lakes, causing blizzard conditions, including high winds. and snow.
Officials said many highways were closed and the collisions claimed the lives of at least six people. At least two people died in a large pile involving about 50 vehicles on the Ohio Turnpike. A motorist in Kansas City, Missouri, was killed Thursday after sliding into a creek, and three others died Wednesday in separate collisions on icy roads north of Kansas.
Michigan has also faced numerous crashes, including one involving nine semi-trailers.
Brent Whitehead said it took him 7.5 hours – instead of the usual 6 – to drive from his home near Minneapolis to his parents’ home in suburban Chicago on Thursday in sometimes icy conditions.
He said: “Thank goodness I fitted my car with snow tires.
Activists are also rushing to get the homeless out of the cold. Nearly 170 adults and children were keeping warm early Friday in Detroit at a shelter and a heating center designed to hold 100 people.
“There’s a lot of redundancy,” said Faith Fowler, chief executive of Cass Community Social Services, which runs both facilities.
In Chicago, Andy Robledo planned to spend the day organizing homeless screening efforts through his nonprofit, Feeding People Through Plants. Robledo and the volunteers set up a tent modeled on ice fishing, including a plywood subfloor.
“It’s not a house, it’s not an apartment, it’s not a hotel room. But it’s a big step up from what they’ve had before,” Robledo said.
In Portland, Oregon, nearly 800 people slept at five emergency shelters Thursday night, as homeless outreach teams distributed cold-weather survival gear. Shelters call for volunteers amid high demand and staffing issues. Officials said employees had collapsed from flu or respiratory symptoms or were unable to go to work due to frozen roads.
DoorDash and Uber Eats have suspended delivery in some states, and bus service has been disrupted in places like Seattle.
The power went out at Jaime Sheehan’s Maryland bakery for about 90 minutes on Friday, turning off the convection oven and turning off the mixer she needed to make the buttercream.
“Thankfully, all of today’s orders were completed yesterday,” she said for a moment before the power came back on.
At roughly the same time, Corey Newcomb and his family were entering the sixth hour of no electricity at their home in the small town of Phenix, Virginia.
“We’re dealing and that’s all,” Newcomb said in a Facebook message.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said she is deploying the National Guard to deliver timber to the Oglala Sioux and Rosebud Sioux tribes and help clear snow.
“We have families out there that we haven’t heard from in two weeks,” said Wayne Boyd, chief of staff to the Rosebud Sioux president.
Fearing that some people were running out of food, the tribe had hoped to get a helicopter on Saturday to check on those trapped.
Meanwhile, the Oglala Sioux Tribe is using snowmobiles to reach members who live at the end of mile-long dirt roads.
Tribal president Frank Star Comes Out said: “So far, it’s been a bad fight.
At Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Harlie Young was huddling with her five children and 58-year-old father around a wood stove when 12 feet (3.6 meters) of snow blocked the house.
“We’re just trying to look at the bright side that they’re still coming and they’re not forgetting us,” she said Friday, as temperatures dropped to record lows.
The weather service forecast the coldest Christmas in more than two decades in Philadelphia, where school officials moved classes online on Friday.
On New Hampshire’s summit of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast, winds reached 150 mph (241 km/h).
In Boston, rain combined with high tides created waves that overran the breakwater at Long Wharf and flooded several downtown streets. The situation in Vermont was so bad that Amtrak canceled service for the day and unnecessary state offices closed early.
“I’m hearing from teams that are seeing mature trees uprooted,” said Mari McClure, president of Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility company.
Calling it a “kitchen sink storm,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency. In parts of New York City with high tides flooding roads, homes and businesses Friday morning, police had to trudge through knee-deep water to pull stranded motorists to the ground. safe place in Queens.
In Iowa, sports broadcaster Mark Woodley made headlines on Twitter after he was called upon to do live broadcasts outdoors in the wind and snow because sporting events were cancelled. By noon on Friday, his broadcast aggregate had been viewed nearly 5 million times on Twitter.
He told a presenter: “I have good news and bad news. The good news is I can still feel my face right now. The bad news is that I wish I couldn’t. “
(AP)
