Freezing conditions from a deadly winter storm in the United States will continue into the week as western New York deals with massive snowdrifts that have snarled emergency vehicles, and travelers across the country see cancelled flights and dangerous roads.<\/p>\n
The storm has killed at least 48 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.<\/p>\n
Major Winter Storm Brings Snow, Freezing Temperatures To Big Swath Of U.S.
\nHAMBURG, NY – DECEMBER 24: Ice covers the Lake Erie shoreline on December 24, 2022 in Hamburg, New York. The Buffalo suburb and surrounding area was hit hard by the winter storm Elliott with wind gusts over 70 miles per hour battering homes and businesses through out the holiday weekend. (Photo by John Normile\/Getty Images)
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\nAcross the US, the storm caused massive disruption amid plunging temperatures, blizzard conditions and ferocious winds. Power outages hit numerous states, frigid air struck usually warm states like Florida, and thousands of flights were axed or delayed causing widespread travel chaos. It was dubbed a \u201conce in a generation\u201d weather event by forecasters.<\/p>\n
Western New York state, near the city of Buffalo, was hardest hit, with 43in of snow falling during a 48-hour, zero-visibility blizzard that also recorded hurricane-force winds. Huge snowdrifts nearly covered cars and there were thousands of houses in the dark.<\/p>\n
At least 27 people are known to have died in western New York, ranging in age from 26 to 93 and including a 27-year-old man who was overcome by carbon monoxide after snow blocked his furnace. Many of the deaths occurred after residents took to the roads despite a local driving ban.<\/p>\n
The deaths were \u2018\u201cpeople found outside and in cars\u201d, a Buffalo police statement read. Police said there were two \u201cisolated\u201d instances of looting during the storm.<\/p>\n
Rescue teams even found themselves in need of rescue, with all of Buffalo\u2019s firetrucks at one point stranded. Eleven ambulances that had to be abandoned were dug out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rescue team was rescuing rescuers \u2026 it was so horrible,\u201d Erie county executive Mark Poloncarz said. \u201cWhen the rescuers have to be rescued, I\u2019m not certain what else we could have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two people also died in their homes in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga when emergency crews could not reach them in time to treat their medical conditions. Other people were trapped in their cars for more than two days, as cold Arctic air moving east over the Great Lakes caused enormous amounts of precipitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a war with Mother Nature,\u201d the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, said during a news conference. \u201cThis will go down in history as the most devastating storm in Buffalo\u2019s long-storied history of having battled many battles, many, many major storms.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a press conference on Monday after touring Buffalo, Hochul and city mayor Byron Brown emphasized that it remains important for people to stay home and remain off the roads. \u201cAnyone who declares victory and says that it\u2019s over, it is way too early to say,\u201d Hochul said, adding, \u201cThe storm is coming back, we\u2019re expecting another six to 12 inches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buffalo resident Jeremy Manahan said he had been almost 29 hours without electricity. \u201cThere\u2019s one warming shelter, but that would be too far for me to get to. I can\u2019t drive, obviously, because I\u2019m stuck,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you can\u2019t be outside for more than 10 minutes without getting frostbitten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zila Santiago told the New York Times he had been trapped in a snowbank in his car with his four young children for 11 hours. He called emergency services, the national guard and friends for help, but said none came. He distracted his children, he said, by watching Disney\u2019s Frozen.<\/p>\n
Santiago, a single father, said he had taken to the roads because he couldn\u2019t afford to leave the kids with their babysitter. \u201cI was basically just hopeless,\u201d he told the outlet. \u201cThis is not something that I\u2019ve been through or experienced in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Freezing storm kills dozens of people and brings disruption across US \u2013 video report
\n02:12
\nFreezing storm kills dozens of people and brings disruption across US \u2013 video report
\nThe National Weather Service in the US said the frigid Arctic air \u201cenveloping much of the eastern half of the US will be slow to moderate\u201d but \u201cthe major lake effect snow event downwind of the Great Lakes will gradually come to an end by Tuesday\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ditjak Ilunga of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was on his way to visit relatives in Ontario, for Christmas with his daughters on Friday when their SUV was trapped in Buffalo. They spent hours with the engine running, buffeted by wind and nearly buried in snow.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I stay in this car I\u2019m going to die here with my kids,\u201d Ilunga recalled thinking. He cried when the family walked through the shelter doors. \u201cIt\u2019s something I will never forget in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The storm knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle. But heat and light were steadily being restored across the US.<\/p>\n
Concerns about rolling blackouts across eastern states subsided Sunday after power company PJM Interconnection said its utilities could meet the day\u2019s peak electricity demand. The mid-Atlantic grid operator had called for its 65 million consumers to conserve energy amid the freeze Saturday.<\/p>\n
Storm-related deaths were reported all over the country: 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\u2019s subzero temperatures; and a woman who fell through Wisconsin river ice.<\/p>\n
In Jackson, Mississippi, city officials on Christmas Day announced residents must boil their drinking water due to water lines freezing and bursting.<\/p>\n