US winter storm hits 200MM Americans
Before the holiday weekend, a massive winter storm that has been connected to at least 12 fatalities is having an icy hold on 200 million Americans.
On Friday, tens of thousands of flights were cancelled and almost 1.5 million people lost power. From Texas to Quebec, the massive storm covers a distance of more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km).
The Great Lakes on the US-Canada border have seen blizzard conditions due to a bomb cyclone, which occurs when air pressure drops.
The Arctic storm hit Canada worst in Ontario and Quebec, where hundreds of thousands lost power.
From British Columbia to Newfoundland, a large portion of the rest of the country was under winter storm and extreme cold warnings.
To avoid the winter, they moved south. Still, the storm located them.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) said its Friday map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever”.
Temperatures in Elk Park, Montana, dropped to -50F (-45C), while the town of Hell, Michigan, has frozen over.
It was 1F (-17C) in the snow-covered community on Friday night. Emily, a bartender at Smitty’s Hell Saloon, told the BBC: “It’s pretty cold here, but we’re having a hell of a time.”
US winter storm hits 200MM Americans
Native Americans stranded by snow in South Dakota burnt clothing for heat after running out of fuel, according to tribe officials.
In certain parts of Pennsylvania and Michigan, a lot of snow was predicted. Buffalo, New York, expected at least 35 inches of rain (89cm). The NWS reported that more than eight million people were still under blizzard warnings.
There have been instances of coastal flooding in New England, New York, and New Jersey.
In the Pacific Northwest, some residents ice-skated on frozen streets in Seattle and Portland.
Even the usually milder southern states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Georgia were experiencing hard-freeze warnings.
Road traffic incidents have been involved in a number of storm-related fatalities, including a 50-car pileup that claimed the lives of two drivers in Ohio.
Lack of snow plough operators was making travel issues worse across the nation, and low pay rates were to blame.
As travellers struggled to make it home for Christmas, more than 5,600 US flights were cancelled on Friday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
By Friday night one million customers had no electricity across the US, according to http://PowerOutage.us.
Utilities throughout the Tennessee Valley were implementing rolling blackouts to save power.
The NWS says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken over the next few days. Decades-old records have already been matched.
