The Cold Front Moved Faster than 2021: New Orleans, North Carolina, and Texas Embedded in a Winter Weather Emergency
More than half of the US population was under a winter weather advisory at one point on Friday. Even New Orleans, famous for its balmy climate, opened three overnight warming centers.
“This is really a very serious weather alert here,” said President Biden, speaking to reporters Thursday morning in front of a national map of wind chill forecasts. “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid. This is very serious.
The cold front has moved so swiftly that temperatures across the Rocky Mountains plunged at record paces. On Wednesday night in Cheyenne, Wyo., the temperature dropped more than 30 degrees in just nine minutes.
Governors in at least 13 states, including Georgia and North Carolina in the South, have implemented emergency measures to respond to the storm. Declarations of a state of emergency in several states have included the activation of National Guard units.
In Texas where a winter storm in 2021, which killed more than 200 people, overwhelmed the power grid, officials expected it to hold up despite forecasts calling for little precipitation.
Peter Lake,chairman of the state’s Public Utility Commission, stated at a Wednesday news conference that the grid is ready. “We expect to have sufficient generation to meet demand throughout this entire winter weather event.”
The Northern Sky’s Snow Needs Help, Too: A Forecast for the Fourth and Fifth Snowfall of the City of Denver and Kansas City
Strong gusts up to 60 mph with the snow will make for extremely dangerous conditions on the road.
That could be good news for winter travelers. Thousands of flights have been canceled or put on hold Monday morning with those flying to or from the Great Lakes region seeing the most impact.
No airport canceled more than Denver International Airport, where the recorded temperature of minus 24 degrees was the coldest recorded since 1990. More than a quarter of all flights in or out of the airport have been canceled. Nearly 480 more were delayed.
In Chicago, up to 8 inches of snow was expected to fall on Thursday and Friday, and temperatures were expected to fall below zero overnight.
City officials stressed that crews were working around the clock to keep flights moving at the city’s major airports, O’Hare and Midway, both of which serve as hubs for major airlines.
More than 500 pieces of snow removal equipment, more than 400,000 gallons of liquid deicer for runways and taxiways, and more than 5,000 tons of salt are just some of what the city’s hard-working individuals will have at their disposal.
Hundreds of miles away in Kansas City, the winter weather brought only an inch or two of snow. But temperatures were expected to remain below freezing for days, putting a strain on the city’s homeless services.
Many shelters added beds this week, but many are still at or near capacity. Instead, some people sought shelter on the city’s streetcar, which was operating Thursday after crews had worked from 4 a.m. to clear the route and platforms.
“The library is closed. So it’s only this or the bus, or you go into a parking garage, but you’ll probably get kicked out,” said Pete, who said he did not have a permanent place to live and declined to give his last name to KCUR. “There’s not much you can do.”
The Cold Winter In Montana And The Last of Its Colder Than Ever: Hank Willemsma Tells His Rancher, Long Beach, New York, and Forecasts
The sun was out in Montana, as snow moved towards the Midwest. But the frigid temperatures won’t thaw until the weekend, forecasts say.
This winter is worse than the last few years, but it’s nothing new to Montana. We’ve been running cattle for a long time, so we kind of know how to get through stuff like this,” Willemsma said.
Hank Willemsma, a rancher near Dillon, where Thursday’s high temperature was expected to reach minus 13 degrees, said he’d be working through the cold to keep hay out for his cattle.
Reporting from Bruce Konviser, WPLN’s Paige Pfleger and Blake Farmer, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly and David Schaper and the Associated Press was used in this report.
The storm – expected to intensify throughout Friday as it barrels through the Midwest and East – is making for grim road conditions with poor visibility and ice-covered streets. There is flooding on the coastlines of the Northeast.
All modes of travel – planes, trains and automobiles – were being disrupted: There were hundreds of miles of road closures and flight cancellations were growing rapidly. In New York, flooding along the Long Island Rail Road forced part of the Long Beach branch to temporarily shut down.
Mick was in the snow of Buffalo, New York, for two hours, and he said that Christmas is canceled. All family and friends agreed it was safer this way.
Snow, Frost, and Ice: Three Dead and One Lifeline in a Car Accident on Interstate 75 in New York During the Superstorm Phenomenology
The state of Ohio Nine people have died as a result of weather-related auto crashes, including four in a Saturday morning crash on Interstate 75, when a tractor-trailer crossed the median and collided with an SUV and a pickup, authorities said.
The Kansas City Police Department reported that one person lost their life when the Dodge Caravan they were travelling in lost control on icy roads. Police said the Dodge went down the embankment over the retaining wall and landed upside down in the creek.
About 1.2 million customers in the US are experiencing power outages amid the winter weather and frigid temperatures, according to the website PowerOutage.US. New Hampshire, Maine and Virginia have the most power outs.
“The National Weather Service’s Watch Warning graphic depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” the agency said Thursday.
“I called it a kitchen sink storm because it is throwing everything at us but the kitchen sink,” Hochul said at a press conference Friday afternoon. “We’ve had ice, flooding, snow, freezing temperatures, and everything that mother nature could wallop at us this weekend.”
The storm unleashed its full fury on Buffalo, with hurricane-force winds and snow causing whiteout conditions, paralyzing emergency response efforts. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said almost every fire truck in the city was stranded Saturday. The airport would be closed on Tuesday morning according to officials. The National Weather Service said the snow total at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport stood at 43 inches (109 centimeters) at 7 a.m. Sunday.
He said he would miss Christmas with his people as he sat inside a truck in the middle of a road covered in snow.
Washington DC is forecast to see its second coldest Christmas Eve, only behind 1989. In New York, it will be the coldest Christmas Eve since 1906. Chicago is expecting temperatures to rebound above zero, but will still experience its coldest Christmas Eve since 1983.
Weather Forecasts in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regions of the United States During a Fourth-Winter Snowstorm
When atmospheric pressure drops very rapidly in a strong storm, it can cause a bomb cyclone, which can cause severe weather, including heavy winds and snow.
• It will remain very cold: Friday will bring record-low temperatures in large swaths of the US, including from the Lower Mississippi Valley, northeastward into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and stretching across large sections of the east from the Southeast, through the Southern to Central Appalachians and into the mid-Atlantic, according to the National Weather Service.
There is a chance of up to 7 more inches of snow in Buffalo, which is under a winter weather advisory. However, temperatures will be slightly higher than they have been in previous days, with a high of 30 degrees in the daytime and a low of 26 at night.
Even if the snow stops, high winds can cause low visibility and wreak havoc with 888-548-5870 888-548-5870.
The winter storm warning is in effect in western Washington, including Seattle. There could be additional snow of up to 2 inches and ice accumulates at least a quarter of an inch. Precipitation will start as snow, then sleet and then rain. Travel is likely to be difficult due to the more power outages.
The runways were closed at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport because of the ice, causing more than half of the flights to be canceled. All express services for Sound transit, a regional transportation network in the Seattle area, were suspended on Friday due to icy conditions.
The cold temperatures combined with dangerous wind chills will create a potentially life-threatening hazard for travelers who become stranded, people who work outside, livestock and pets, according to the National Weather Service.
“It’s cold enough that if you got a walk-in freezer and got in half-naked and sat around for a while, that’s what it feels like,” said Randy Hayden, 70, who runs a 20,000-acre cattle ranch in Gillette, Wyo., where the wind chill made it feel like 45 degrees below zero.
Nashville Pedestrian Walk Through Cold Ice During a Tentative Fourth-Century Snowstorm: Turning the Corner, Stabilizing the Power Grid
Sharisse Wooding, 41, a school principal from Memphis, said her flight home from a vacation in New York City had been canceled — and rebooked for Monday.
She was at La Guardia Airport as she tried to regroup, and said it was all heartbreaking. I am not supposed to spend my Christmas break this way.
In Nashville, a layer of ice and snow accompanied by zero-degree temperatures left the city’s normally boisterous downtown relatively quiet, without the usual throng of tourists for the holidays.
Steam rose into freezing air off the Cumberland River as Kyle Elliott, 29, trudged above it on a pedestrian bridge, a guitar strapped on his back. Fifteen minutes into the walk, he could no longer feel his feet.
“I’ve never experienced weather this cold before,” said Mr. Elliott, a native of Tennessee. “I’ve never felt my facial hair freeze before. I have now.
In Nashville, roughly 55,000 customers across the city had lost power as of Friday afternoon, and state officials issued a plea to businesses and residents to reduce usage and help stabilize the power grid.
Angus cows huddle in dark-cold homes during a storm, and then they had to go home. Or, when did they walk?
Angus cattle hurried up a pasture trail on Steve and Tara Agan’s farm about an hour south of Des Moines on Friday, eager to feast on silage and alfalfa.
Ms. Agan said her biggest challenge was keeping her fingers warm, even in thick gloves, while bottle-feeding some of the calves. You don’t have a choice. You have to leave. The cows need as much food as they can get during the summer.
Goran Nedeljkovic, 59, a mail carrier in Chicago, said he was surprised that the postal service required letter carriers to complete their routes by foot on Friday.
He said that he had five or six layers on and his body was okay, but his fingers kept freezing through his gloves, my glasses kept fogging up, and my scanner wasn’t working because of the cold.
Many New Englanders reacted to the storm with a characteristic mix of stoicism and acceptance, even as downed trees and tidal surges knocked out power and closed roads. At the Landing, a brown-shingled restaurant at the edge of Marblehead Harbor, north of Boston, Dina Sweeney, the manager, stood outside watching the gray water heave and crash through the metal grates and railings at the harbor’s edge, scattering seaweed across the parking lot.
The building’s walls have protective hatches that let ocean water pass in and out but flooding caused a lot of damage to the floor.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/23/us/winter-storm-snow-weather/in-buffalo-families-huddle-in-dark-cold-homes
Winter storm snow in buffalo families huddle in dark cold homes: Caitlin Linney woke up with no electricity and a wood stove
Caitlin Linney, an electronic music artist, woke up on Friday at her parents’ rural home in Efland, about 40 minutes northwest of Raleigh, hoping to start her day with a Peloton yoga course, before realizing that they had no electricity.
Ms. Linney’s parents live on a 10-acre property and get their water from a well. No power meant it was not possible to pump water. Ms. Linney traveled from Southern California for the holidays so was in Durham, where she picked up food and water for her lunch.
Ms. Linney was concerned about the power going out again even though it came back on at her parents house by midafternoon.
Ms. Linney said the wood stove would stay on. She said they might have to bunk down at a neighbor’s house if the power goes out again.
Prices of heating fuel and black ice warnings were banned in Atlanta by the governor after he declared a state of emergency.
Most of the action at Ponce City Market was inside as shoppers ran their errand two days before Christmas.
At an outpost of Marine Layer, a clothing store, Jennifer Velasco, an employee, was waiting on customers in a poofy winter coat and a white wool hat. Every time the door opened, the wind and cold would come in. Ms. Velasco was not happy when she moved to Atlanta from Houston.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/23/us/winter-storm-snow-weather/in-buffalo-families-huddle-in-dark-cold-homes
High-Temperature Warnings on Central Florida, a Model Explanation for the Outage at High Temperatures, with an Application to a Heating Center
Local and state officials scrambled to open emergency shelters for residents who found themselves lacking the basics, serving hot food and distributing supplies.
The weekend weather in Central Florida is expected to plunge into the 30s, threatening Keishaun Johnson who has three children, a dog and lacks a stable housing situation.
She and her family went to a homeless shelter this week to get some supplies for the cold weather, and it is also a warming center.
“We got jackets, blankets, all the hygiene stuff, clothes, socks, everything,” she said. “Now I’m 100 percent better, because it was really frightening,” he said.
Some travelers were pleasantly surprised at the lack of chaos when they passed through the airport, as lines appeared to be shorter than the day before.
“I didn’t think we’d be able to get in the door,” said Joe Netzel, 40, of Chicago, who was waiting to fly to Phoenix with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. Our flight is on time.
Sub-freezing temperatures are expected across the affected areas, where temperatures will be in the teens and low 20s, potentially killing crops and damaging plumbing. The majority of these warnings will end Monday morning as the temperatures recover from the polar air.
Power restored after the Ohio Turnpike dragged by a wind-driven flood in Tennessee and Kentucky: “We’ve been there, and we’ve seen you,” said Aaronson
At least six people are thought to have died in vehicle crashes, and at least four are thought to have died in a big pileup on the Ohio Turnpike.
WPLN’s Blake Farmer reported that as the front hit, parts of the South experienced wind chills of minus 20 degrees, and gusting winds knocked out power to thousands of homes across Tennessee and Kentucky. Emergency responders asked people to be home if possible.
Scott Aaronson, vice president of security and preparedness at the Edison that getting the power restored in weather like this is a significant challenge.
It can be difficult to get to these areas with downed power lines and trees. … “If it’s over 35 miles an hour, crews can’t go up in bucket trucks.” “And so those combination of things will limit the ability of crews to get out there and get the power back on.”
Flooding reached as high as 9 feet along the coast in New Jersey due to high winds and heavy rains. There are interior locations along the Hudson River that have been flooded.
A cold, wet winter storm in Erie County, New York, killed three people and injured many more in the sleazy pile-up
Hochul urged people to stay off the roads as a driving ban continues in Erie County, saying that it was a dangerous situation.
“So that, unfortunately, really affects anyone who’s got a connecting flight, and we’re going to see a lot of people missing connecting flights with these long delay times,” Bangs said.
The city of Buffalo in New York has taken a number of safety precautions in light of a winter storm that has killed at least three people in the US.
“The rescue team was rescuing rescuers … it was so horrible,” Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said during a news conference Sunday. In Erie County, many people were found dead in cars and on the street in snow.
This storm, however, was more ferocious than the blizzard of 1977, Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said. It was horrible for 24 hours.
Even the emergency vehicles sent to help have got stuck in the snow, as rescue crews fanned out on Christmas Day. Eleven ambulances that had to be abandoned were dug out on Sunday, officials said.
Freezing conditions and day-old power outages had Buffalonians scrambling Saturday to get out of their homes to anywhere that had heat. In a city with a thick blanket of white, it wasn’t an option for someone like Jeremy Manahan to charge his phone in his car.
The Buffalo Airport System Shuts Down Friday After the First Snow Day of Superstorms, Revival of a New York City Beachfront Neighborhood
Mr. Poloncarz said it was complicated by drivers ignoring travel bans and becoming stuck or stranded.
The airport was closed on Friday due to hazardous weather conditions, and is expected to be closed until at least Wednesday morning. Pittsburgh International Airport is sending snow equipment to Buffalo Airport to help reopen the airfield according to the news release.
“Everyone is like, ‘Oh, you’re from Buffalo, you’re used to this,’” said Tommy Bellonte, 37, who briefly emerged from his Buffalo home Saturday morning to check on a neighbor. You don’t get used to it.
Some New York City beachfront residents were threatened with leaving home for Christmas after Friday’s storm surge caused many basement apartments to be flooded.
Storm-related deaths were reported in recent days all over the country: Four dead in an Ohio Turnpike pileup involving some 50 vehicles; four motorists killed in separate crashes in Missouri and Kansas; an Ohio utility worker electrocuted; a Vermont woman struck by a falling branch; an apparently homeless man found amid Colorado’s subzero temperatures; a woman who fell through Wisconsin river ice.
As the cold tightened its grip, cities and towns opened warming shelters in fire stations and school gymnasiums, and residents sought shelter, some after spending Friday night in unheated homes, huddled under blankets and clustered around fireplaces in the dark.
After a day without power, a couple of weeks pregnant with their first child attempt to sleep in their apartment in south Nashville. They moved to her mothers house at 6 a.m. after too cold to rest, and then into their car at 2 a.m.
Con Edison Asks Snow Customer’s Choice to Conserve Energy: Frank Anderson’s Chevy in Tonawanda, NY, on Christmas Eve
At La Guardia Airport in New York, travelers prepared to spend Christmas Eve at the airport were forced to cancel more than 50 flights on Saturday.
Misty and Dan Ellis arrived at the airport for check-in at 3 a.m. with their teenage children. The family was shuffled to different flights when their flight was canceled hours later.
The family decided to rent a car instead and drive 14 hours to their home in Nashville. Mr. Ellis said that he didn’t mind paying for it.
Thousands of workers and plow drivers were out in the dark on Saturday night working to restore power and clear roads after cold and darkness knocked out electricity in Western New York. With snow forecast to continue, and travel bans still in effect, stores were empty of last-minute shoppers, and streets mostly silent.
Frank Anderson was stuck in the snow for the second time since he finished his shift as a prison guard on Saturday, in his white pickup truck.
Still wearing his work jacket with a New York State Corrections and Community Supervision emblem on his left sleeve and with only a spare sweater in the back seat, he found his truck jammed along Hertel Avenue, his tires spinning on ice, as he attempted to make it back to his wife and three children in time for Christmas. He was about “a mile from home” in the suburb of Tonawanda.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/24/us/winter-storm-snow-weather/con-edison-asks-new-york-city-customers-to-conserve-energy
PJM Interconnection: Constraints on Natural Gas, Extreme Weather and Power Usage on New York’s Interstate Lines
Euan Ward , Eliza Fawcett , Isabella Grullón Paz , Bob Chiarito, Jamie McGee, Ellen Yan, April Rubin, Sharon Dunten and Maria Jimenez Moya contributed reporting.
Customers in New York were urged by utilities to conserve energy due to increased usage of interstate lines for natural gas and extreme weather.
In all or parts of Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, PJM Interconnection serves about 65 million people.
Meanwhile, a shortage of electricity in Texas prompted the US Department of Energy to declare an emergency Friday, allowing the state’s energy provider to exceed environmental emissions standards until energy usage drops.
In Jackson, Mississippi, frigid temperatures are hampering efforts to repair a large water main break late Saturday, which has caused a loss in water pressure for residents, city officials said.
“We are grateful to the crews who are braving these frigid temperatures on this Christmas Eve night, while working to restore pressure to residents. Their sacrifice is appreciated by the administration and every person affected, according to the release.
As crews continue to dig out vehicles drowning in snow-covered roads and highways, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stressed the importance of abiding by local and state driving bans in place in Western New York. A driving ban remains in effect during the overnight hours in Buffalo, Lackawanna and Cheektowaga.
National Guard troops were called in to help rescue people stuck in vehicles, and also to provide rides for medical workers who had been working for more than a day.
Highway Sliding and Emergency Medical Services: The Buffalo Blizzard Combined Effect of Snow and Clouds in the Outskirts of Seattle, Washington
In Seattle, Washington, online videos have documented cars sliding on the icy roads and bumping into each and residents slipping as they walked on sidewalks, CNN affiliate KOMO reported.
Hochul said that she would be asking the federal government for a declaration of emergency so that she could seek reimbursement for all of the overtime. “We’ve deployed individuals – the utility crews have come but also making sure that we have all the vehicles we need.”
“The loss of two lives in Buffalo – storm related – because people were not able to get to medical attention, is again a crisis situation that unfolds before your eyes and you realize that lifesaving ambulances and emergency medical personnel cannot get to people during a blizzard situation,” Hochul added.
Colorado Springs police reported that there were two deaths related to the cold over the last 24 hours, one of which was a homeless man found near a transformer in an alleyway.
The storm system is moving slowly towards southeastern Canada, as it pulls in air from the east and weakens over the course of the next few days.
The blast in the eastern two-thirds of the country will gradually moderate into Monday, but it will still be a dangerous day.
Lake-effect snows will continue to make for hazardous travel conditions for the next couple of days and conditions are expected to slowly improve over the week.
By Christmas night into Monday, another low pressure system coming from the Pacific will deliver the next surge of moisture toward the Pacific Northwest and then into northern California, according to the Weather Service.
Driven and trapped: Ditjak and Cindy risk the storm to get there early in the morning and leave their furry friend around a warming center
“There’s one warming shelter, but that would be too far for me to get to. I can’t drive, obviously, because I’m stuck,” Manahan said. “And you can’t be outside for more than 10 minutes without getting frostbit.”
We cannot just take everyone to a warming center. We don’t have the capability of doing that,” Poloncarz said. “Buffalo neighborhoods are still not accessible due to the flooding.”
On his way to visit relatives in Hamilton, Ontario for Christmas, the SUV of Ditjak and his daughters was trapped in Buffalo. Unable to get help, they spent hours with the engine running in the vehicle buffeted by wind and nearly buried in snow.
In the early morning of Saturday, with their fuel nearly gone, Ilunga chose to risk the storm and reach a nearby shelter. He carried 6-year-old Destiny on his back while 16-year-old Cindy clutched their Pomeranian puppy, stepping into his footprints as they trudged through drifts.
“If I stay in this car I’m going to die here with my kids,” he recalled thinking, but believing they had to try. He cried when the family walked through the shelter doors. It is something I will never forget.
The Buffalo Christmas Night at the Spirit of Truth Urban Ministry: A Los Alamos Christmas for a Family of Misfits and Singular Tourists
Migrants in Mexico are facing cold weather as they await a decision from the US Supreme Court.
Along Interstate 71 in Kentucky, Terry Henderson and her husband, Rick, weathered a 34-hour traffic jam in a rig outfitted with a diesel heater, a toilet and a refrigerator after getting stuck trying to drive from Alabama to their Ohio home for Christmas.
Buffalo will continue to see snowfall and frigid cold temperatures Monday, with a high of 23 degrees expected in the daytime and a low of 18 at night, according to the National Weather Service.
Vivian Robinson of Spirit of Truth Urban Ministry in Buffalo said she and her husband have been sheltering and cooking for 60 to 70 people, including stranded travelers and locals without power or heat, who were spending Saturday night at the church.
Many arrived with ice and snow plastered to their clothes, crying, their skin reddened by the single-digit temperatures. On Saturday night, they prepared to spend Christmas together.
“It’s emotional just to see the hurt that they thought they were not going to make it, and to see that we had opened up the church, and it gave them a sense of relief,” Robinson said. “Those who are here are really enjoying themselves. It’s going to be a different Christmas for everyone.”
Daylight in Buffalo, Buffalo, and the Tampa, NY, New York, plows through deep snow as well as their homes during the Sunday afternoon storms
Daylight revealed cars nearly covered by 6-foot snowdrifts and thousands of houses, some adorned in unlit holiday displays, dark from a lack of power. With snow swirling down untouched and impassable streets, forecasters warned that an additional 1 to 2 feet of snow could befall some areas through early Monday morning, amid wind gusts of 40 mph.
“Some were found in cars, some were found on the street in snowbanks,” said Poloncarz. There are people that have been stuck in cars for more than 2 days.
Concerns about rolling blackouts across eastern states subsided Sunday after PJM Interconnection said its utilities could meet the day’s peak electricity demand. The grid operator urged its consumers to conserve energy during the cold spell on Saturday.
In Jackson, Mississippi, city officials on Christmas Day announced that residents must now boil their drinking water due to water lines bursting in the frigid temperatures While in Tampa, Florida, the thermometer plunged below freezing for the first time in almost five years, according to the National Weather Service — a drop conducive to cold-blooded iguanas falling out of trees.
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 and then 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 brought about 15 people to the church in Buffalo on Saturday, he said, including a family of five transported one-by-one. He got a man in need of transplant treatment who had been stranded in his car, savesay savesay savesay savesay gave him a chance for treatment, savesay gave him a chance for treatment.
As a massive winter storm continues to blast much of the US with brutal winter weather – leading to at least 37 deaths nationwide – parts of western New York have been buried by up to 43 inches of snow, leaving vehicles stuck and power out for thousands during the Christmas weekend.
“Our state and county plows have been out there, nonstop, giving up time and putting themselves in danger, driving through blinding snowstorms to clear the roads,” Hochul said.
“Think about looking just a few feet in front of you at a sheet of white for more than 24 hours in a row. That’s what it was like outside in the worst conditions,” he said. “It was continual blizzard and white outs such that no one could see where they were going. There was no idea what was happening.
New York State Police Acting Supt Steven Nigrelli said hundreds of vehicles were left in the snow during the storm. Authorities were going door-to-door, car-to-car, checking for people, he said.
Hochul said during the press conference that some people had remained in their homes for the last 56 hours without power. The governor said that this is not due to a lack of resources but rather a challenge faced by utility companies.
More than 10 million people in the South were under a freeze alert on Monday.
Much of the country will be in a deep freeze through Monday before a change arrives on Tuesday, according to the forecasters.
The blast of polar air from Canada has left a trail of powerlessness, canceled flights and wreaked havoc on holiday travel plans for six days.
The New Generational Storm: The Buffalo Police, the National Weather Service, and the Michigan Area Combined Snowfall Record with Over 1 foot of Snow
Many stranded motorists have been rescued by the Buffalo Police. “In some of these circumstances, some of these people might not have survived if it weren’t for the efforts of first responders to rescue them from vehicles.”
“This has been called a generational storm — a once-in-a-generation storm,” Brown said. “It’s unlike anything that even the city of Buffalo is used to getting.”
“That number is now below 10,000, and we will continue to work aggressively and strategically with National Grid all day today to continue to reduce that number and get everyone’s power restored,” he added, referring to the local utility.
The National Weather Service still advises caution if you plan to venture outside, as high wind speeds and low temperatures can cause frostbite in less than 10 minutes.
Near Watertown, Copenhagen, a village in New York’s Lewis County, was buried in snow. CNN affiliate WWNY reported that even snowplows were having a hard time navigating the roads because of the driving conditions.
On Sunday, the Michigan area set a daily snowfall record with over a foot of snow. The old record was 8 inches received on December 25, 1992.
How dangerous is it to be out? A sheriff’s comment on abandoned vehicles during the Erie and Genesee storms, with a request for a federal emergency declaration
Hochul said during a Monday news conference that there were scores of vehicles that were left abandoned during the storm. “It is still a dangerous situation to be out,” she added.
I have a bad feeling about that. I think the death toll is going to go up,” the sheriff said. “When you have 420 EMS calls that are unanswered, it’s just gut-wrenching.”
Hochul said Monday that the state has tons of ready to eat meals, but that the road conditions are causing difficulties in aid efforts.
“We have a responsibility to have all these resources on hand. Hochul said that when nature shuts down and builds a wall that is not visible to the untrained eye it is not safe for emergency vehicles and the trucks that are bringing groceries to the stores are being shutdown anyhow.
She said that the request for a federal emergency declaration for Erie and Genesee counties would be important to assist our recovery efforts from this historic storm.