Published:
25 Dec 2022 14:56 GMT
Heavy snowfall knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the country.
A severe winter storm that hit the United States on Christmas Eve has caused around twenty deaths and left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity. The extreme weather also caused accidents on the roads and paralyzed the international airport of Buffalo, in the state of New York.
The scale of the storm, which ranged from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande on the border with Mexico, is virtually unprecedented: around 60% of the population stayed under some kind of alert or meteorological warning.
The snow blizzards with the gales have also caused the cancellation of a total of 1,416 domestic and international flights this Sunday, according to data collected by FlightAware. Due to the adverse weather conditions, the Buffalo Niagara International Airport will remain closed until next Monday.
trapped in the snow
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Saturday in Press conference that “people are comparing it to the dreaded blizzard of 1977when Buffalo first earned a reputation for unprecedented amounts of snow.”
Many Americans were trapped in their own cars, as were emergency crews. “Our National Guardour response teamsour ambulancesour fire trucks they’re all getting stuck in the snow too. In fact, almost all of the fire trucks in the city of Buffalo are stranded in the snow,” Hochul said.
power outages
The storm knocked out power to residents from Maine to Seattle, and a major power operator warned 65 million people in the eastern United States of potential blackouts.
A massive winter storm has left at least 28 people dead & about 380,000 homes & businesses without power across the US, where more than 8,000 flights have been canceled since Friday due to the Arctic blast.#USES#ArcticBlastpic.twitter.com/HOKYXqmMfB
— 🌎 Sarwar 🌐 (@ferozwala) December 25, 2022
PJM Interconnection, which supplies power to 13 states and Washington DC, warned that they could be forced to resort to blackouts, since the operation of power plants is hampered by the freezing temperatures that have been installed these days.
The US Department of Energy has already declared the energy emergency in Texassatisfying the corresponding request of the State Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT), which made the request on Friday to be able to resort to controlled blackouts.
“Although the vast majority of generating units in the region where ERCOT operates continue to operate without problems, a small number of units have experienced operating difficulties due to cold weather or gas shortages,” the Department of Energy said in the decree.
In total, there are currently more than 260,000 power cuts nationwide, according to data from the specialized portal poweroutage.us.
slippery seattle
Seattle residents woke up Friday with the city covered in ice, a scenario described as “the worst“frosty” of the decade after a night of freezing rain. Moving on foot or by any means of transport around the city became an impossible mission.
Roads and sidewalks became scenes of chaos, with cars skidding out of control and crashing into whatever was in their path.
Pedestrians did not fare any better either, as can be seen from the numerous videos shared on social networks.
However, there were those who found ways to hold their ground and keep their balance in the slippery environment of the unexpected skating rink that the city became.
