Heavy snowstorm sweeps over the east coast of the USA: Hundreds of thousands without electricity

Created: 01/04/2022, 12:15 PM

By: Patrick Huljina

In the United States, a heavy snow storm caused power outages and traffic chaos on Monday.

In the capital Washington, more than eight inches of fresh snow fell.

Washington - canceled flights, blocked roads, fallen trees - this was the result of the snow storm that swept over the east coast of the USA on Monday (January 3rd).

It led to massive disruptions in traffic and widespread power outages.

The capital Washington and the neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland were particularly hard hit by the extreme weather.

Snowstorm in the USA: Hundreds of thousands without electricity

In Virginia on Monday evening (local time) around 400,000 households were still without electricity. Local company Dominion warned customers that in some areas it could take "several days" to restore power. Due to the heavy and damp snow, trees fell and branches broke off, causing damage to power lines.

In the US capital Washington, according to the weather service, almost 20 centimeters of fresh snow was measured within a few hours.

The government had already ordered its officials and employees on Sunday evening (January 2) not to come to work on Monday.

There were hardly any cars in the city.

Back roads were still not cleared hours after the last snowfall.

The reopening of the schools after the holidays in Washington was postponed for a day to leave enough time for the necessary corona tests before the start of classes.

The White House in Washington was also hit by the snow storm.

© Andrew Harnik / dpa

Snowstorm in the USA: US President Biden also affected

US President Joe Biden also felt the effects of the snow storm. After returning from a few days' vacation in his home state of Delaware, he had to wait around half an hour in Air Force One at Andrews military airport until the thick blanket of snow had been cleared away. The drive of his motorcade back to the White House was also reportedly unusually slow.

The snowstorm also exacerbated the already prevailing travel chaos in the USA at the end of the holidays.

More than 3000 domestic and international flights were canceled again.

The days before, there had been chaos in US air traffic due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

Many airlines are currently struggling with personnel problems because employees are in quarantine due to a corona infection or contact with infected people.

On Tuesday, the United States reported an all-time record high number of new infections in the pandemic.