BUFFALO, N.Y. — Hundreds of thousands of individuals hunkered down against a deep freeze Sunday to ride out the winter storm that has killed at the very least 34 people across the US and is predicted to say more lives after trapping some residents inside houses with heaping snowdrifts and knocking out power to tens of hundreds of homes and businesses.
The scope of the storm has been nearly unprecedented, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60% of the U.S. population faced some form of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.
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Travelers’ weather woes are more likely to proceed, with lots of of flight cancellations already and more expected, after a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops in a short time in a robust storm — developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow. Some 1,707 domestic and international flights were canceled on Sunday as of about 2 p.m. EDT, in line with the tracking site FlightAware.
The storm unleashed its full fury on Buffalo, with hurricane-force winds and snow causing whiteout conditions, paralyzing emergency response efforts. Recent York Gov. Kathy Hochul said almost every firetruck in town was stranded Saturday and implored people Sunday to respect an ongoing driving ban within the region. Officials said the airport could be shut through Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service said the snow total on the Buffalo Niagara International Airport stood at 43 inches at 7 a.m. Sunday.
Daylight revealed cars nearly covered by 6-foot snowdrifts and hundreds of homes, some adorned in unlit holiday displays, dark from an absence of power. With snow swirling down the untouched and impassable streets, forecasters warned that a further 1 to 2 feet of snow was possible in some areas through early this morning amid wind gusts of 40 mph. Police said Sunday evening that there have been two “isolated” instances of looting through the storm.
Two people died of their suburban Cheektowaga, N.Y., homes Friday when emergency crews couldn’t reach them in time to treat their medical conditions. County Executive Mark Poloncarz said 10 more people died in Erie County through the storm, including six in Buffalo, and warned there could also be more dead.
“Some were present in cars, some were found on the road in snowbanks,” said Poloncarz. “We all know there are individuals who have been stuck in cars for greater than two days.”
Freezing conditions and day-old power outages had Buffalonians scrambling to get to anywhere that had heat amid what Hochul called the longest sustained blizzard conditions ever in town. But with streets under a thick blanket of white, that wasn’t an option for people like Jeremy Manahan, who charged his phone in his parked automobile after almost 29 hours without electricity.
“There’s one warming shelter, but that might be too far for me to get to. I am unable to drive, obviously, because I’m stuck,” Manahan said. “And you’ll be able to’t be outside for greater than 10 minutes without getting frostbit.”
Ditjak Ilunga of Gaithersburg, Md., was on his solution to visit relatives in Hamilton, Ontario, for Christmas together with his daughters Friday when their SUV was trapped in Buffalo. Unable to get help, they spent hours with the engine running, buffeted by wind and nearly buried in snow.
By 4 a.m. Saturday, their fuel nearly gone, Ilunga made a desperate alternative to risk the howling storm to succeed in a close-by shelter. He carried 6-year-old Destiny on his back while 16-year-old Cindy clutched their Pomeranian puppy, following his footprints through drifts.
“If I stay on this automobile I will die here with my kids,” Ilunga recalled considering. He cried when the family walked through the shelter doors. “It’s something I’ll always remember in my life.”
The storm knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle. But heat and lights were steadily being restored across the U.S. Based on poweroutage.us, lower than 200,000 customers were without power Sunday at 3 p.m. EDT — down from a peak of 1.7 million.
Concerns about rolling blackouts across eastern states subsided Sunday after PJM Interconnection said its utilities could meet the day’s peak electricity demand. The mid-Atlantic grid operator had called for its 65 million consumers to conserve energy amid the freeze Saturday.
In North Carolina, lower than 6,500 customers had no power — down from a peak of 485,000. Across Recent England, power has been restored to tens of hundreds with just below 83,000 people, mostly in Maine, still without it. In Recent York, about 34,000 households were still without power Sunday, including 26,000 in Erie County, where utility crews and lots of of National Guard troops battled high winds and struggled with getting stuck within the snow.
Storm-related deaths were reported in recent days all around the country: 12 in Erie County, N.Y., ranging in age from 26 to 93 years old, and one other in Niagara County, where a 27-year-old man was overcome by carbon monoxide after snow blocked his furnace; 10 in Ohio, including an electrocuted utility employee and people killed in multiple automobile crashes; six motorists killed in crashes in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky; a Vermont woman struck by a falling branch; an apparently homeless man found amid Colorado’s subzero temperatures; and a lady who fell through Wisconsin river ice.
In Jackson, Miss., city officials on Christmas Day announced that residents must now boil their drinking water on account of water lines bursting within the frigid temperatures.
In Buffalo, William Kless was up at 3 a.m. Sunday. He called his three children at their mother’s house to wish them Merry Christmas after which headed off on his snowmobile for a second day spent shuttling people from stuck cars and frigid homes to a church operating as a warming shelter.
Through heavy, wind-driven snow, he led to 15 people to the church in Buffalo on Saturday, he said, including a family of 5 transported one-by-one. He also got a person in need of dialysis, who had spent 17 hours stranded in his automobile, back home, where he could receive treatment.
“I just felt like I needed to,” Kless said.
EXTREMES IN CANADA
Every province and territory in Canada issued an emergency weather warning on Saturday, as winter storms left hundreds without power, grounded lots of of flights and caused the pileup of dozens of cars on a highway in Ontario.
Even Canadians accustomed to the cold and the vagaries of arctic weather systems found themselves contending with a lengthy list of maximum conditions that, along with heavy snow and hypothermia-inducing temperatures, also included storm surges, ice fog, strong winds and so-called ice bombs.
“Across Canada, there have been 425 weather warnings,” an almost unprecedented number, said David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada, the national meteorological agency.
“There have been hundreds of power outages and the impact was in all places on the busiest travel time of the 12 months,” Phillips said. Wind chill readings, he said, dipped to about minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit. Such cold, he added, “freezes flesh in minutes.”
The weather across Canada is a component of the identical system afflicting much of the US, which has disrupted Christmas travel and celebrations and plunged cities into record cold. America on Saturday recorded at the very least a dozen deaths and at one point, greater than 1.5 million households were without power.
In Canada, greater than 500,000 households remained without power as of Saturday morning, in line with poweroutage.com, an internet data collector. Eastern Canada, particularly Quebec, has been the toughest hit, accounting for nearly 70% of outages. In Sept-Rivières, a sparsely populated region in Quebec, nearly every customer was without power.
“It is not over yet,” said Philippe Archambault, spokesperson for Hydro-Quebec, the general public utility that manages electricity across the province. “We still have very strong winds together with really heavy snow.”
“At once, we still have around 300,000 people without electricity on account of the storm that hit Quebec within the last two days,” he said, adding that greater than 500 teams were working to revive power. “We’re working across the clock.”
Heavy snow in Ontario caused slick roads and whiteout conditions that on Friday led to a 60-vehicle pileup on a highway from London to Sarnia.
Photographs showed the twisted wreckage of cars and trucks along Highway 402. No deaths were reported, however the Ontario Provincial Police closed the highway to traffic on Friday and in a Twitter post warned drivers “to not travel unless essential.”
On the west coast, bus and ferry service was suspended in Vancouver and two major bridges in British Columbia were closed as freezing rain and ice made them unsafe.
The authorities in British Columbia shut the Port Mann and Alex Fraser bridges due to threat of “ice bombs,” masses of ice that accumulate on the bridge’s cables and might fall on cars.
“Now we have transitioned this morning into freezing rain, and our concern right away is there may be traces of ice accumulating on the cable stays, the cable on the bridges themselves,” Ashok Bhatti of the province’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure told CTV News.
A whole lot of air travelers had their Christmas plans upended as flights across Canada, including on the busiest airports, were canceled. Multiple flights from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto were grounded, and WestJet, certainly one of the country’s leading providers, preemptively canceled flights at airports in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
Amid the severe weather, 54 flights out of Toronto Pearson Airport, the busiest in Canada, had been canceled early Saturday, with scores more delayed, in line with the airport’s departure board.
Information for this text was contributed by Carolyn Thompson, Jake Bleiberg, Mike Schneider, Stefanie Dazio, Jonathan Mattise, Ron Todt, John Raby, Marc Levy, Jeff Martin and Wilson Ring of The Associated Press and by Russell Goldman and Euan Ward of The Recent York Times.
Icicles hang from ornamental plants at sunrise Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Plant City, Fla. Farmers spray their crops with sprinklers to assist protect them. Temperatures overnight dipped into the mid-20’s. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Greater than 800 runners dressed as Santa Claus braved near freezing temperatures to take part in the Run Run Santa 1 Mile Saturday Dec. 24, 2022 in Viera, Fla. The temperatures were within the low 30’s and the coldest within the race’s 7-year history. (Craig Bailey /Florida Today via AP)
Dan O’Conor, referred to as the “Great Lake Jumper,” dries off after jumping into Lake Michigan, in Chicago, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. Temperatures climbed as much as 14 degrees Saturday afternoon, after Chicago was below zero for 29 hours, in line with the National Weather Service. (Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) and tackle Spencer Brown (79) exhale before a successful two-point attempt within the second half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Brian Dickie, dressed as Santa Claus, rides his bike through the wintery streets of Carleton Place, Ontario, Christmas Eve, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. A significant winter storm system continues to affect eastern Ontario. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
Gamaliel Vega tries to dig out his automobile on Lafayette Avenue after he got stuck in a snowdrift a few block from home while attempting to help rescue his cousin, who had lost power and warmth with a baby at home across town during a blizzard in Buffalo, N.Y., on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. (Derek Gee/The Buffalo News via AP)
A winter storm rolls through Western Recent York Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Amherst N.Y. A battering winter storm has knocked out power to lots of of hundreds of homes homes and businesses across the US on Saturday. It left hundreds of thousands more to fret in regards to the prospect of further outages and crippled police and fire departments. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)
A farmer drives by an icicle covered fence as he checks on his ornamental plants before sunrise Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Plant City, Fla. Farmers spray their crops with sprinklers to assist protect them. Temperatures overnight dipped into the mid-20’s. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
An individual walks through the Central Experimental Farm during strong winds and snow squalls in Ottawa, Canada, on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. Environment Canada has issued a winter storm warning for the region. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)Gallery: Winter weather, Dec. 25, 2022
