US storm: Freezing week ahead with 34 lives lost so far

Freezing conditions from a deadly winter storm in the United States will continue into the week as people in western New York deal with massive snow drifts that snarled emergency vehicles, and travelers across the country see cancelled flights and dangerous roads.

The storm has killed at least 34 people and is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

The extreme weather stretched from the Great Lakes on the Canadian border to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60% of the US population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians.

Across the border in Canada, authorities said a bus rolled over on an icy highway in British Columbia on Christmas Eve, killing four people and injuring three dozen. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Sunday that the bus crashed on Highway 97C east of Merritt.

The National Weather Service in the US said Sunday the frigid arctic air enveloping much of the country’s eastern half was moving slowly – especially unwelcome news for Buffalo, which saw hurricane-force winds and snow causing whiteout conditions that paralyzed emergency response efforts.

Almost every fire truck in Buffalo was stranded on Saturday, said the New York state governor, Kathy Hochul, who implored people on Sunday to respect a continuing driving ban. Officials said the airport would be shut through Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service said the snow total at Buffalo Niagara international airport stood at 43 inches (109cm) at 7am on Sunday.

‘Life-threatening hazard’: 28 dead in Arctic storm battering US

Huge snowdrifts nearly covered cars and there were thousands of houses dark from a lack of power, along with their unlit holiday displays.

With snow swirling down untouched and impassable streets, forecasters up to two feet more of snow was possible in some areas through early Monday morning amid wind gusts of 40mph (64km/h). Police said Sunday evening that there were two “isolated” instances of looting during the storm.

Two people died in their suburban Cheektowaga, New York, homes on Friday when emergency crews could not reach them in time to treat their medical conditions. Ten more people died there during the storm, including six in Buffalo, said the Erie county executive, Mark Poloncarz, who warned there may be more dead.

“Some were found in cars, some were found on the street in snowbanks,” Poloncarz said. “We know there are people who have been stuck in cars for more than two days.”

Ditjak Ilunga of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was on his way to visit relatives in Hamilton, Ontario, for Christmas with his daughters on Friday when their SUV was trapped in Buffalo. Unable to get help, they spent hours with the engine running, buffeted by wind and nearly buried in snow.

By 4am on Saturday, their fuel nearly gone, Ilunga chose to risk the howling storm to reach a nearby shelter. He carried six-year-old Destiny on his back while 16-year-old Cindy clutched their pomeranian puppy, following his footprints through drifts.

“If I stay in this car I’m going to die here with my kids,” Ilunga recalled thinking. He cried when the family walked through the shelter doors. “It’s something I will never forget in my life.”

Travelers’ weather woes continued, with hundreds of flight cancellations already and more expected after a bomb cyclone – when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm – developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

The storm knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle. But heat and light were steadily being restored across the US. Power tracking sites showed fewer than 200,000 customers were without power Sunday at 3pm EDT – down from a peak of 1.7 million.

Concerns about rolling blackouts across eastern states subsided Sunday after PJM Interconnection said its utilities could meet the day’s peak electricity demand. The mid-Atlantic grid operator had called for its 65 million consumers to conserve energy amid the freeze Saturday.

Storm-related deaths were reported in recent days all over the country: 12 in Erie County, New York, ranging in age from 26 to 93 years old, and another in Niagara county where a 27-year-old man was overcome by carbon monoxide after snow blocked his furnace; 10 in Ohio, including an electrocuted utility worker and those killed in multiple car crashes; six motorists killed in crashes in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky; a Vermont woman struck by a falling branch; an apparently homeless man found amid Colorado’s subzero temperatures; and a woman who fell through Wisconsin river ice.

In Jackson, Mississippi, city officials on Christmas Day announced residents must boil their drinking water due to water lines freezing and bursting.

With Associated Press