The blizzard is adamant on releasing its grip on western New York. (file)
New York:
US emergency workers calculated the grim costs of a massive winter storm that brought Christmas chaos to millions, especially in hard-hit Western New York, where the death toll reached 25 Monday, which officials said described as “war with Mother Nature”.
Blizzard conditions continue in parts of the US Northeast, remnants of widespread extreme weather, including extreme cold, that has gripped the country for several days, causing widespread power outages, travel delays and at least one nationwide shutdown. There have been 47 deaths.
More than 15,000 flights have been canceled in recent days, including more than 1,700 on Monday, due to bad weather, according to tracking site Flightaware.com.
Buffalo — a US city that is no stranger to inclement winter weather — has been buried under massive amounts of snow, with the National Weather Service estimating up to 14 inches (0.35 m) on Monday, in addition to several feet that With a virtual collapse of the emergency services that have already left, the city is left stranded.
The blizzard has been reluctant to release its grip on Erie County in western New York, where Buffalo is located and which has become the epicenter of the crisis.
“In addition to the 13 deaths reported yesterday, the Erie County Department of Health Medical Examiner’s Office has confirmed an additional 12 deaths, bringing the countywide total to 25,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a press briefing. Death has happened.” ,
The severe weather makes it “probably the worst storm in our lifetime and in the city’s history,” Poloncarz said, adding that the death toll in Erie would exceed Buffalo’s infamous blizzard of 1977, when nearly 30 people were killed.
With more snow in the forecast and most of Buffalo “impassable”, he warned residents to bunker down and stay in place.
“It’s not the end yet, we’re not there,” he said.
National Guard members and other teams rescued hundreds of people from snow-covered cars and homes without power, but officials said more were still trapped.
New York Governor Cathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, said she was shocked by what she saw during a Sunday reconnaissance tour of the city.
“It’s like going to a war zone, and the vehicles along the roads are shocking,” Hochul described as eight-foot (2.4-metre) snow drifted against homes and how power outages were life-threatening conditions. .
“It’s a war with Mother Nature,” she said.
Extreme weather sent wind chills below freezing across all 48 contiguous US states over the weekend.
Severe power cut
According to tracker poweroutage.us, about 1.7 million customers were without power in the severe winter Saturday.
That number has dropped substantially, though as of Monday morning about 50,000 were still without power on the US East Coast.
Due to frozen electrical substations, some Erie County residents did not expect power to come back until Tuesday, a senior county official said, with one substation reportedly buried under 18 feet of snow.
Officials described historically dangerous conditions in the snow-prone Buffalo area, with hours of whiteout and the discovery of bodies in vehicles and under snow banks. Emergency crews continued a difficult search for people in need of rescue.
The city’s international airport remains closed through Tuesday and driving restrictions remain in place in much of Buffalo and Erie County.
Road snow and white-out conditions temporarily closed some of the nation’s busiest transportation routes, including part of the cross-country Interstate 70 highway.
Drivers were being warned not to take to the roads – even during what is typically the busiest time of year for travel to the nation.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
featured video of the day
BJP MP Pragya Thakur’s shocker: “Keep knives in homes…”