Millions of Americans shelter from the frigid, deadly storms.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Millions of people hunkered down in a deep freeze overnight and early morning to ride out the frigid storm that has killed at least 18 people across the United States, trapping some residents inside homes with heaping snow drifts and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
The extent of the storm was unprecedented. It reached from the Great Lakes, near Canada, to the Rio Grande on the border with Mexico. The National Weather Service stated that approximately 60% of Americans were subject to a winter weather advisory or warning. Temperatures dropped below the normal range from east of Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians.
According to FlightAware, Saturday saw cancellations of more than 2,360 domestic and international flight tickets.
Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.
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 — and shutting down the airport through Monday, according to officials.
Buffalonians had to move quickly Saturday because of the freezing conditions and power outages. People like Jeremy Manahan couldn’t leave their homes because of the thick white blanket covering Buffalo. He charged his phone in his car, even though he was without power for almost 29 hours.
“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.”
Mark Poloncarz, executive of Erie County, home to Buffalo, said ambulances were taking more than three hours to make a single hospital trip and the blizzard may be “the worst storm in our community’s history.”
Two people were killed in their homes in suburban Cheektowaga in New York on Friday, when emergency crews failed to reach them in the time necessary to treat their medical issues. A third person died in Buffalo.
“We can’t just pick up everybody and take you to a warming center. We don’t have the capability of doing that,” Poloncarz said. “Many, many neighborhoods, especially in the city of Buffalo, are still impassable.”
Ditjak of Gaithersburg (Maryland) was traveling to Hamilton, Ontario with his daughters for Christmas when their SUV got stuck in Buffalo. The vehicle was nearly submerged in snow and wind, leaving them unable to call for help.
Ilunga decided to make a desperate decision to escape the howling storm at 4 am Saturday morning, their fuel almost gone. As he carried Destiny, 6-year-old, on his back, Cindy, 16, clutched their Pomeranian puppy.
“If I stay in this car I’m going to die here with my kids,” he recalled thinking, but believing they had to try. When the family entered the shelter doors, he cried. “It’s something I will never forget in my life.”
The storm knocked out power across communities from Maine to Seattle. In addition, a major electricity grid operator warned 65,000,000 residents of possible rolling blackouts in the eastern U.S.
More than 273,000 New England customers were without power in six New England states on Saturday. Maine was the worst affected. Some utilities claimed that power may not be restored for days.
North Carolina saw 169,000 customers without power Saturday afternoon. This is down from over 485,000 on Saturday. Officials at utilities stated that rolling blackouts would continue over the next few days.
Recent storm-related deaths have been reported all across the country. There were four victims in an Ohio Turnpike accident involving 50 vehicles, and four others in two separate accidents in Missouri and Kansas. An Ohio utility worker was electrocuted. A Vermont woman was struck by a falling branch. An apparently homeless man was found in Colorado’s subzero temperatures. And a woman fell through Wisconsin riverice.
Mexico migrants camped near the U.S. border As they waited for a U.S. Supreme Court verdict on restrictions imposed by the pandemic that prevented many from seeking asylum, they were confronted with unusually cold temperatures.
Terry Henderson, her husband Rick, and a truck equipped with a fridge, a heater, a toilet, and a refrigerator, endured a 34 hour traffic jam on Interstate 71, Kentucky.
“We should have stayed,” Terry Henderson said after they got moving again Saturday.
Poloncarz, Erie County, tweeted late Saturday that 34.6 inches (about 88cms) had accumulated at Buffalo Airport. In some areas, snow drifts reached well beyond 6 feet (1.8m). Although the Blizzard conditions are expected to improve by Sunday morning, he said, there was still forecasted lake effect snow.
Spirit of Truth Urban Ministry’s Buffalo representative Vivian Robinson said that she and her husband had been cooking and sheltering 60 to 70 people, which included stranded travelers as well as locals without heat or power, who were staying Saturday night at the church.
Many people arrived in tears, with snow and ice on their clothes. They prepared to spend Christmas night together on Saturday night.
“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.”
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Bleiberg reported in Dallas. This report was contributed by John Hanna in Topeka (Kansas) and Marc Levy, an Associated Press journalist in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.