Millions of people huddled in a deep freeze on Christmas Day to weather the winter storm that has killed at least 29 people in the United States.
The storm is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside homes with accumulating snow and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.
The storm’s reach has been almost unprecedented, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the Mexican border.
Emergency services in Buffalo, New York, were unable to get through the thick snow. (AP)
About 60 percent of the US population faced some type of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures fell sharply below normal from the Rocky Mountains east to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.
Weather woes for travelers are likely to continue, with hundreds of flight cancellations already and more expected after a bomb cyclone, when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm, develops near the Great Lakes, causing blizzard conditions, including strong winds and snow. .
About 1,707 domestic and international flights were canceled as of 2 p.m. Sunday on the East Coast, according to tracking site FlightAware.
The storm unleashed its full fury in Buffalo, with hurricane-force winds and snow that brought whiteout conditions, crippling emergency response efforts.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said nearly all of the city’s fire trucks were stranded Saturday.
Officials said the airport will remain closed until Tuesday morning.
The National Weather Service said the snow total at Buffalo Niagara International Airport was 109 centimeters as of 7 a.m. Sunday.
A severe winter storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the U.S., left millions more worried about the possibility of more outages and destroyed police, fire departments and an airport in the ‘snowy New York state. (AP)
Daylight revealed cars nearly covered in 6-foot drifts of snow and thousands of homes, some adorned with unlit holiday displays, dark from lack of power.
With snow swirling across impassable and impassable streets, forecasters warned an extra 30 to 60cm of snow was possible in some areas by early Monday morning amid gusts of 64km/h.
Two people died Friday at their homes in suburban Cheektowaga, New York, when emergency crews couldn’t get there in time to treat their medical conditions, and another died in Buffalo.
Four more deaths were confirmed overnight, bringing the total to seven in Erie County. County Executive Mark Poloncarz warned there could be more deaths.
“Some were found in cars, some were found on the street in snowbanks,” Poloncarz said.
“We know there are people who have been stuck in cars for over 2 days.”
A car has been left on the side of the road due to dangerous road conditions in Seattle. (Kevin Clark/The Seattle Times via AP)
Freezing conditions and day-long power outages left buffalo scrambling to get anywhere warm amid what Hochul called the city’s longest sustained blizzard conditions ever.
But with the streets under a thick blanket of white, that wasn’t an option for people like Jeremy Manahan, who charged his phone in his parked car after almost 29 hours without power.
“There is a warming shelter, but it would be too far for me to get there. I can’t drive, obviously, because I’m stuck,” Manahan said.
“And you can’t be outside for more than 10 minutes without freezing.”
Ditjak Ilunga of Gaithersburg, Md., was on his way to visit relatives in Hamilton, Ont., for Christmas with his daughters Friday when his SUV got stuck in Buffalo.
Unable to find help, they spent hours with the engine running, buffeted by the wind and nearly buried in the snow.
More than 2,000 domestic and international flights were canceled (AP)
At 4am on Saturday, fuel almost gone, Ilunga made a desperate decision to risk the howling storm to reach a nearby shelter.
He carried 6-year-old Destiny on his back, while 16-year-old Cindy held her Pomeranian puppy, following his tracks through the drift.
“If I stay in this car, I will die here with my children,” Ilunga recalled thinking.
She cried as the family entered the shelter doors.
“It’s something I’ll never forget in my life.”
The storm knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle.
But the heat and lights were steadily coming back on in the US.
According to poweroutage.us, fewer than 200,000 customers were without power as of 3:00 PM EDT Sunday, down from a peak of 1.7 million.
Buildings are seen covered in snow in Louisville, Kentucky in freezing temperatures. (AFP via Getty Images)
Concerns about blackouts in eastern states eased Sunday after PJM Interconnection said its utilities could meet the day’s peak electricity demand.
The mid-Atlantic grid operator had asked its 65 million customers to conserve energy amid Saturday’s freeze.
In North Carolina, fewer than 6,500 customers were without power, down from a peak of 485,000.
Across New England, power has been restored to tens of thousands with just under 83,000 people, mostly in Maine, still without it.
In New York, nearly 34,000 homes were still without power Sunday, including 26,000 in Erie County, where utility crews and hundreds of National Guard soldiers battled strong winds and struggled to stay grounded in the snow
Storm deaths have been reported across the country in recent days: seven in Erie County, New York, and one in Niagara County, where a 27-year-old man was overcome by carbon monoxide after a strong snow blocked his oven.
Some loaded electronics into their cars, only to be nearly buried by the snow. (AP)
Ten died in Ohio, including an electrocuted worker and those killed in several car accidents; six motorists were killed in crashes in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky.
Vermont woman hit by falling branch; an apparently homeless man found in sub-zero Colorado temperatures; and a woman who fell through the ice on the Wisconsin River.
In Jackson, Mississippi, city officials announced on Christmas Day that residents must now boil their drinking water due to water lines bursting in the cold temperatures.
In Tampa, Fla., the thermometer dipped below freezing for the first time in nearly five years, according to the National Weather Service — a drop conducive to cold-blooded iguanas falling from trees.
Locals took to the streets with snowmobiles and plows to help those trapped in their cars. (AP)
In Buffalo, William Kless got up at 3 a.m. Sunday.
He called his three children at their mother’s house to wish them a Merry Christmas and then took off on his snowmobile for a second day spent moving people from stuck cars and cold homes to a church that functions as a warming shelter.
Through heavy, wind-driven snow, he carried about 15 people to the Buffalo church on Saturday, he said, including a family of five transported one by one.
He also got a man who needed dialysis, who had spent 17 hours stuck in his car, back home, where he could receive treatment.
“I felt like I had to,” Kless said.