Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

News

THE COLDEST XMAS: 2 Million Lose Power – 10,000 Flights Canceled – and at Least 19 Killed

A wild winter storm continued to envelop much of the United States on Christmas Eve bringing record-breaking low temperatures for 200 million Americans, blinding blizzards, freezing rain and flooding – and created mayhem for those traveling to see loved ones over the festive period.

The storm that arrived earlier in the week is nearly unprecedented in scope, some 2,000 miles wide and stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the Mexican border.

It has downed scores of power lines, leaving around 1.5 million Americans without electricity, with North Carolina alone seeing more than 400,000 outages, and highways are littered with piles of wrecked cars after whiteout conditions caused deadly accidents. And at least 19 people have lost their lives as a result of the brutal weather, latest figures show.

Temperatures are forecast to top out on Friday at just 8 degrees Fahrenheit in Pittsburgh, the largest city in western Pennsylvania, surpassing its previous all-time coldest Christmas Eve high of 13 F, set in 1983, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

The capital cities of Florida and Georgia – Tallahassee and Atlanta – were likewise expected to record their coldest daytime Christmas Eve high temperatures, while Washington, D.C., was forecast to experience its chilliest Dec. 24 since 1906.

More than 10,000 flights worldwide were canceled or delayed Friday, with around 5,000 of those occurring in the US, according to tracking site FlightAware. Travelers have been forced to sleep on airport floors overnight, with many now unable to get home for the holidays.

Many families may also be waking up on Christmas morning to find there are no presents after FedEx issued a warning on its website that said guaranteed delivery dates previously promised may not be met due ‘substantial’ weather disruptions, particularly at hubs in Indianapolis and Memphis.

Around 60 percent of the U.S. population face some sort of winter weather advisory or warning after temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.

Freezing rain coated much of the Pacific Northwest in a layer of ice, while people in the Northeast faced the threat of coastal and inland flooding.

In response to the inclement weather, President Joe Biden said: ‘This is a really serious weather alert. Please take this storm extremely seriously.’

The NWS warned: ‘In some areas, being outdoors could lead to frostbite in minutes.’

The frigid temperatures and gusty winds were expected to produce ‘dangerously cold wind chills across much of the central and eastern U.S. this holiday weekend,’ the weather service said, adding that the conditions ‘will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for travelers that become stranded.’

Multiple highways were closed and crashes claimed at least six lives, officials said. Four people died in a massive pileup involving some 50 vehicles on the Ohio Turnpike.

The crashes happened Friday afternoon along Interstate 80 eastbound between Route 53 and State Route 4 in Sandusky County, near Groton Township and the Erie County line.

Calling it a ‘kitchen sink storm,’ New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency. In parts of New York City, tidal flooding inundated roads, homes and businesses Friday morning.

In Erie County, in Western New York, a driving ban was put in place, as New York State traffic cameras show the lack of visibility in the area. In Buffalo, city officials canceled the Buffalo Sabres home game with the Tampa Bay Lightening.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said that two people died in the area because they were having medical emergencies and first responders could not get to them in time.

TOP STORIES

Advertisement