The winter storm Elliot, in the United States (USA), the fiercest in decades, has so far claimed the lives of 31 dead and tens of thousands of homes without electricity, according to the latest AFP balance. There are already four days of polar winds that have hit the center and east of the country.
Text: R.F.I.
The storm that has swept through the central and eastern United States for days has left more than thirty dead and tens of thousands of Americans without electricity on Christmas Day, temperatures have dropped to -48ºC, causing the cancellation of thousands of flights and made many roads impassable in the busy holiday season of travel.
Upstate New York was hit particularly hard, with many upstate New York having to cancel or postpone their trips in the height of the holiday season, including Rochester teacher John Michael, who was due to join his daughter in New York for Christmas and had to to turn back at the last minute.
I knew that the plane was not going to take off since the winds were super strong. The flights were canceled one after the other, but ours remained on the screen, and 10 minutes before the scheduled takeoff time, they canceled it. But, what is really unusual here is the intensity of the cold and the wind. Going out in the middle of that wind was really terrible. I went shopping two days ago, and just getting from the car to the grocery store was painful from the cold. Any part of the exposed skin was as if burned. The wind gusts reached about 120 km per hour. These are really harsh weather conditions compared to what is typical for the region, due to the mix of wind and cold. And when the wind blows stronger, you have the impression that it goes through the walls, we have an old house, there are spaces around the windows and you feel the air. Cats hate that! They stayed hidden throughout the storm.
Additionally, Erie County, in northwestern New York state, was particularly hard hit. The city of Buffalo, the second largest in the state, was isolated without emergency services being able to reach the hardest hit areas “It’s like going to a war zone,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters on Sunday.
The bodies of some people were found inside their vehicles or trapped under snowbanks. Other deaths occurred on roads, very dangerous due to the frozen ground and poor visibility.
*Read also: Death toll from Arctic storm in US rises to 22
Another of the places affected was Chicago, RFI collected the testimony of Ezra who went to celebrate Christmas at his brother’s house in this city, under never-before-seen weather conditions.
It’s so cold in Chicago, we’re in a state where it’s not just cold, it hurts! So we haven’t dated yet. A blizzard lasted a few days, especially the last two days, it’s better now, but there’s a lot of snow now. It’s at least minus 13ºC, but it looks like it’s minus 23ºC because of the wind. We are on the lake so we have more wind here, we hear it blowing outside. The lake is partially frozen, which almost never happens. This morning, the windows were frozen, the bathroom door handle was covered in ice crystals… I’ve never seen anything like that in my life!
The storm also knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle, and one major power grid operator warned 65 million people across the eastern United States of potential blackouts.
Across the six New England states, more than 273,000 customers were still without power, with Maine hardest hit. Several power companies anticipated that power could take several days to be restored.
In Mexico, migrants camping on the US border have faced unusually low temperatures as they await a US Supreme Court decision on Title 42, which has barred many from seeking asylum.
The storm is expected to gradually weaken as it moves into southeastern Canada, moving slowly over the next few days, fading mainly after Monday over the eastern two-thirds of the country.
Post Views: 156
