The number of known victims of extensive US snowstorms has risen to 65, news server nbcnews.com reported today. In the hardest-hit state of New York alone, 34 people died. Even today, thousands of flights are canceled in the US due to bad weather. The vast majority of these are operated by Southwest Airlines, which is now under fire and scrutiny from the federal government for failing to handle the situation.
At the same time, the United States may also face extreme weather conditions in the coming days, especially in the west of the country. The weather there is forecast to be affected by a phenomenon known as the “atmospheric river”, which could bring several days of heavy rain and snowfall. Meteorologists warn of the danger of floods and landslides.
Deaths from the American Northeast to Colorado have been linked to dangerous winter conditions. Ten deaths are reported from Ohio, six motorists were killed in accidents in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky, and a fatal accident is also reported in Wisconsin.. Traffic problems and power outages have also plagued Canada, where four people were killed and 36 injured in a highway bus crash on Saturday.
The scale of the storm is almost unprecedented as it affected an area in the US stretching from the Great Lakes on the border with Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. Approximately 60 percent of the US population has experienced some form of winter weather warning. Temperatures dropped below normal from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians.
Snow squalls, especially in the northeast, drove residents into cars or houses. According to the New York newspaper The Times remained in the city of Buffalo nearly three days after the blizzard hit and some people got stuck in cars on the highway or streets. In some cases, even the rescuers sent to the scene had problems; on Sunday, according to authorities, 11 abandoned ambulances were rescued from under the snow.
This was told by New York Governor Kathy Hochulova from Buffalo. the worst snowstorm the city has seen since her childhood. Reuters wrote that even snow plows were covered with snow here. The city was paralyzed just a few weeks after it was hit by a brief storm with record snowfall.
Flight cancellations are also expected in the coming days. As of Wednesday morning, US airlines reported more than 5,000 flight cancellations over the next two days, according to Reuters. As of Friday, this was across the US, according to the server. FlightAware has canceled over 12,000 flights. Only on Sunday there were 3,100 of them, and almost 10,000 more were late during holiday visits.. In addition, traffic disruptions continue after the weekend, especially at Southwest Airlines. More than 3,800 US airline flights were canceled on Monday, according to FlightAware.including 2,800 Southwest flights.
With the start of a new another 30 to 60 centimeters of snow expected during the weekHowever, the AFP agency writes, the winter storm should subside in the northeastern United States from Tuesday. For example, in Texas, which experienced unprecedented frosts over the weekend, temperatures of about ten degrees Celsius were already expected on Tuesday, and at the end of the week the maximum could be around twenty.
The storm cut power from Maine to Seattle, but repairs are ongoing. Fewer than 200,000 customers were left without power on Sunday afternoon, down from a peak of 1.7 million, according to poweroutage.us. As of Monday morning, about 60,000 households were left without electricity, mostly in the east of the country. More than 100,000 customers in Canada were left without power on Sunday, according to news company CBC.
Source: Blesk