The passage of the Arctic storm Elliot, in the US, left without electricity this Saturday, December 24, more than 315,000 homes and companies, and without Christmas Eve thousands of people trying to reunite with their families, because some 4,900 flights were canceled and add to the nearly 6,000 cancellations that occurred on Thursday
The death toll from Storm Elliot, which has caused freezing temperatures in large areas of the Midwest and eastern United States (USA), rises to at least 22, after seven states in the North American country have confirmed deaths during the last hours.
According to local media, such as Angeles Times, many of these people perished in traffic accidents or from frostbite trapped in their vehicles during the blizzard.
According to information collected by the American television channel CNNeight people have died in Ohio -four of them in a pile-up that affected 50 vehicles-, three in Kansas, New York and Kentucky, two in Colorado and one each in Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin, respectively.
The storm left without electricity this Saturday, December 24, more than 315,000 homes and businesses, on the eve of Christmas Day. Strong winds, sometimes covered in ice and snow, downed numerous power lines. In the days leading up to the weekend, the storm had knocked out power to more than 1.7 million homes in the US and Canada.
Also read: Powerful US winter storm threatens to unleash Christmas chaos
The US media have reported that this Christmas is being the coldest since temperatures were recorded in the United States.
Elliot’s passage left thousands of people trying to reunite with their families without Christmas Eve, since some 4,900 flights were canceled this Saturday, according to data from the Flight Aware portal. These are in addition to the nearly 6,000 cancellations that occurred on Thursday, causing chaos and despair at several airports in the United States. For this Sunday, the cancellation of another 800 has been confirmed.
Storm Elliot weakens but snowfall continues
The National Weather Service, the National Weather Service (NWS), predicted this Christmas Sunday that the Arctic front “advances slowly to the east while weakening”, still leaving low temperatures and some snowfall.
“Conditions are expected to slowly improve as the system weakens. However, traveling in these conditions will be extremely dangerous” in some areas, the US agency warned in a statement. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Buffalo, New York airports remain closed.
Electricity service, affected by strong winds, snowfall and high demand, was restored in much of the US. At least 260,000 users remain in the dark, between homes and businesses, according to the Power Outage tracker.
With information from The country
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