Cold wave in the USA: the number of deaths is increasing – thousands of flights have been cancelled
Created: 2022-12-25 04:54
By: Caspar Felix Hoffmann, Vincent Büssow
A historic cold snap is sweeping across the United States.
Canceled flights, power failures and fatal accidents are the result.
Update from Saturday, December 24,
8:18 a.m .: Extreme cold, heavy snowfall and ice winds continue to cause chaos in the United States just before Christmas.
While there were still talks of around 3,000 canceled flights on Friday morning, this number has now risen to more than 5,000.
The effects of the storm are also fatal on the roads: according to media reports, at least 13 people died in traffic accidents.
Fears of power outages also came true in many places.
More than 1.2 million US homes were affected as of Friday night, according to website
PowerOutage
.
Values around minus 45 degrees Celsius were measured in the states of Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Some states, including New York, have declared a state of emergency.
An icy storm is raging in the USA.
Traffic accidents are the result in many places.
© Neil Blake/dpa
Cold wave in the USA: Thousands of flights canceled – several dead
First report from Friday, December 23, 9:15 a.m.:
Washington / Frankfurt – Icy wind whips the snow across the highway.
From the police officer's car in the US state of Wyoming, you can hardly see your own hood: whiteout, the snow like a white wall, visibility is zero, every driver's nightmare.
As can be seen in the dashcam video of Wyoming State Troopers, which the
New York Post
newspaper published on its website, motorists have been feeling the same way in large parts of the north and midwest of the United States in the past few days.
Extreme frost, snowstorms and freezing winds: the USA will be hit by a dramatic cold wave over the Christmas period.
More than 200 million Americans were affected by severe weather warnings on the day before Christmas (December 23), the US weather service reported.
Dangers from drastic temperature drops, freezing winds and massive snowfall threatened “from coast to coast”.
In Denver, Colorado, temperatures dropped by around 40 degrees within 24 hours as the Arctic cold front passed through.
According to media reports, at least five people died in traffic accidents that were apparently caused by the weather in Kansas and Oklahoma by Friday (December 23).
Cold wave in the USA: More than 3000 flights canceled
There were chaotic scenes at the airports.
The FlightAware
website reported that more than 3,000 flights were canceled on Friday (December 23) alone
.
Especially passengers in the north, around the great lakes, can make up their Christmas travel plans.
A video posted by the
Weather Channel
's website shows an armada of snow plows attempting to clear the tarmac at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the country's main airports.
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An hour's flight further east, in Cleveland, on the south shore of Lake Erie,
almost 70 percent of all flights were canceled on Friday (December 23) , according to
FlightAware .
And it doesn't go further by land either.
Numerous train and bus connections were canceled and the authorities warn against driving by car.
The weather service warned that those who get stuck on the roads because of snow and ice could face the icy winds as a life-threatening trap.
It's particularly hard on those who don't have a roof over their heads.
Across the country, helpers are trying to save the many homeless people from the cold.
At a church mission in Augusta, Georgia, they were preparing for an onslaught, the
New York Times
reports.
"It might not be a matter of life and death on a normal night," said the mission leader, "but it is now." According to media reports, at least five homeless people froze to death in Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier this week.
And even in Miami, where it's typically warm, the Homeless Relief has put its Cold Emergency Plan into effect.
Weather at Christmas: storm sweeps across Germany – warning of severe weather.
Severe weather in the USA: the power grid collapsed due to the cold
In the state of Texas, the extreme cold snap brings back dark memories.
Last year, the power grid collapsed due to the cold, and millions of people were without electricity for days.
According to studies, more than 200 people are said to have died as a result.
But this time, be better prepared.
"The power grid is ready and reliable," the
New York Times
quoted a manager as saying.
As of Friday (December 23),
more than 80,000 of more than 12 million power consumers in Texas were without power, according to website
PowerOutage.us .
Nationwide, more than a million people would have sat in the dark.
The north of the country is particularly badly affected by ice, wind and snow – especially around the Great Lakes.
"Swells of up to twenty feet are predicted at each of the Great Lakes," the Detroit Free Press
newspaper quoted
a scientist from the State Meteorological and Oceanographic Administration.
Authorities have already responded on the east shore of Lake Erie, near Niagara Falls.
In the city of Hamburg, New York, residents near the water have reportedly been asked to evacuate their homes.
Cold wave in the USA: Temperatures are expected to rise again soon
In the metropolis of Chicago, on the shores of Lake Michigan, the winter services also had their hands full.
Further east, in the state of Indiana, the governor has mobilized the National Guard to protect people from the expected snowstorms.
But just as quickly as the cold spook broke over the USA, it could also be over again.
In some areas of the country's north-west, temperatures are expected to soar again soon once the core of the cold air has passed, the National Weather Service forecast.
In many places it should be 20 to 30 degrees warmer by the weekend.
(cas/vbu/dpa)
