Cities in the USA are struggling hard with the snowfall.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Press)
new York In much of the United States, Christmas is overshadowed by the effects of a violent winter storm. So far, at least 28 people in eleven states have died in connection with extreme cold, icy winds and heavy snowfall, the NBC broadcaster reported on Saturday evening (local time), citing official information.
At least three people were killed in Erie County, New York, on Saturday, county official Marc Poloncarz confirmed on Twitter. The New York Times said the emergency services did not arrive on time for two of them. The reason for this was the heavy snowfall. It was said that not even snow plows could have cleared the streets.
In some regions, even higher wind speeds were reported on Friday morning (local time). On Mount Washington, for example, the highest peak in the north-east of the USA, the wind was whipping up at a speed of over 150 kilometers per hour. In the state of Montana, temperatures have already dropped to minus 46 degrees Celsius. Snowdrifts more than ten feet high in South Dakota.
A few days ago, many flights were canceled due to the increased snowfall.
(Photo: Reuters)
Airlines canceled nearly 5,000 flights for Friday, according to FlightAware. More than 1.4 million connections were without power, as documented by the PowerOutage website.
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Numerous roads were closed. At least six people died in accidents on icy roads between Wednesday and Friday, police said. At least two people died in a pile-up involving at least 50 vehicles in Ohio state.
In Kansas City, Missouri, a driver died after his car slid into a river on Thursday. Three other people were killed in various accidents on icy roads in the state of Kansas on Wednesday.
Meteorologists warned of a “bomb cyclone” on the Great Lakes near the border with Canada, which occurs when the air pressure in a low-pressure area drops unusually quickly. The result is wild snowstorms – blizzards – and temperature drops of several dozen degrees within a few hours.
The freezing cold will move east from the middle of the USA. Cold warnings will affect more than 200 million people in the coming days, that is about 60 percent of the population. President Joe Biden also warned that it would not be a snowy day like when we were children: “This is serious.”
Toronto is also hit by heavy snow masses.
(Photo: IMAGO/NurPhoto)
The center of the storm has shifted north and is now over eastern Canada, the US weather service wrote on Twitter. The region around the Great Lakes (“Great Lakes”) in the north-east of the USA remains severely affected. Heavy snowfall is also to be expected there on Sunday, which in combination with strong gusts of wind can lead to snowstorm-like conditions locally, it said.
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