More than 20 people have died from the passage of winter storm Elliot, which has impacted almost the entire territory of USA in full Christmas festivities, the coldest recorded in the country for decades.
The storm, caused by an arctic air front, began to abate this Sunday after having left sub-zero temperatures from Canada to Texas in its wake, as well as heavy snowfall and strong winds that have affected the electrical grid and aviation.
During the morning of Christmas Day, some 200,000 users were still without power, while about 3,000 flights were cancelled.
A prolonged winter storm causes power outages, travel disruptions and freezing temperatures on Christmas Dayhttps://t.co/z22cusEAyp
— CNN in Spanish (@CNNEE) December 25, 2022
about twenty dead
At least seven people died in the Buffalo area (New York State), a city that has been collapsed by snow and whose airport will remain closed until at least Monday.
The dead were found in vehicles, at homes and on the street, Erie County authorities reported.
“We are still facing freezing weather across the state. These low temperatures are life-threatening, so New Yorkers should stay indoors today,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference on Sunday.
Four other people were killed in a pileup on an Ohio state highway involving about 50 vehicles.
There have also been deaths due to accidents or the cold in Kansas, Missouri, Vermont, Colorado and Wisconsin, according to the local press, which brings the number of deaths from the storm to more than twenty.
At least 200 million people in the United States, 60% of the population, have been under some weather alert, according to the national weather service, the National Weather Service (NWS).
In several cities on the east coast and even in Florida, the thermometers reached minimums that had not been seen since Christmas 1983.
Elliott weakens
Storm Elliot is moving slowly to the east this Sunday as it weakens, although temperatures remain frigid and lower than usual in the east, center and south of the country.
As of 5:30 p.m. GMT, 176,000 people were on alert for snowstorms, according to the NWS forecast.
“Conditions are expected to slowly improve as the system weakens. However, traveling in these conditions will be extremely dangerous” in some areas, the agency warned in a statement.
More than 3,000 flights have been canceled this Sunday morning, according to the Flight Aware registry. On Friday there were 5,800, so thousands of people could not be reunited with their families on Christmas Eve.
#America news #World.
The main airports in Florida continue to accumulate cancellations during the weekend despite the winter storm Elliot, which has frozen the United States in the middle of the Christmas holidays.Photo EFE pic.twitter.com/66gKUypOT6
– Radio America HN (@radioamericahn) December 25, 2022
The Secretary of Transportation of the United States, Pete Buttigieg, explained that more than 20% of the flights that were scheduled were canceled, as well as many trains of the Amtrak public network.
He also warned that the cold was “dangerous” for people who ventured on road trips, due to the risk of being stranded by the snow.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) predicted days ago that 113 million people would undertake journeys of more than 80 kilometers during these festivities.
As the storm subsided, power was restored in areas where power infrastructure had been affected by the blizzards.
As of 5:30 p.m. GMT, some 200,000 users were still without power, mainly in Maine and New York. During the last days, 1.7 million homes and businesses were left in the dark by the storm.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, appeared publicly on Thursday to warn Americans to take the storm “extremely seriously” and to follow the recommendations of the authorities.
