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Cars under snow in Buffalo, New York
Photo: JALEN WRIGHT / EPA
»This is not the Christmas we wished for«: The violent arctic winter storm kept the USA in suspense over the weekend with snow masses and icy winds.
According to authorities, at least 29 people died in eight states, many of them in traffic accidents due to black ice and poor visibility.
At least seven people died in the winter storm in Erie County alone, official spokesman Mark Poloncarz said on Sunday morning.
"Crisis of epic proportions"
The city of Buffalo on the border with Canada was cut off from the outside world, and emergency services could not reach particularly hard-hit districts.
The state governor, Kathy Hochul, spoke of a "crisis of epic proportions".
Front doors disappeared behind snowdrifts up to 2.40 meters high, and the situation became life-threatening due to power failures in freezing temperatures.
Two people died Friday at their homes in a suburb of Cheektowaga, New York, and another died in Buffalo.
Four more deaths were confirmed during the night.
Poloncarz warned that there could be more deaths.
Some froze to death in their cars, others were discovered on the road in snowdrifts.
"This isn't the Christmas we wanted," he said.
Power will not be restored until Monday.
Boil drinking water in Mississippi
The city of Jackson, Mississippi, announced on Christmas Day that residents must boil their drinking water.
The water pipes burst in the freezing temperatures.
"Please check your businesses and churches for leaks and broken pipes as these add up tremendously and will only make the problem worse," the city said in a statement, adding, "We understand the timing is terrible." Alongside the prompt to boil drinking water, some residents also reported low or no water pressure.
The National Weather Service (NWS) predicted 60 to 90 centimeters of fresh snow in the Great Lakes region on December 25 – which is when Christmas is celebrated in the United States.
Meteorologist Kelsey McEwen from Toronto, Canada wrote on Twitter that waves of up to eight meters high had been reported in Lake Erie, while wind gusts of up to 120 kilometers per hour swept over the city of Fairport Harbor in the state of Ohio on the lake shore, according to the NWS.
Train cancellation between Toronto and Montreal
To the south, in Tampa, Florida, the thermometer fell below freezing for the first time in almost five years, according to the NWS.
A stat that causes cold-blooded iguanas to fall from trees.
Canada also shivered in the winter storm.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Ontario and Quebec were without power.
Numerous flights have been cancelled.
According to the Canadian railway company Via Rail, all trains from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal were canceled due to the derailment of a train.
jpa/AFP/dpa
