Temperatures are expected to moderate across the Northeast and Midwest on Tuesday after days of ‘blizzard of the century’ freezing weather that killed at least 62 nationwide and caused Christmas travel chaos. About half of those deaths have occurred in Erie County, New York, where Buffalo is located.
Blizzard conditions persisted in parts of the northeast – the stubborn remnants of a proliferation of extreme weather that gripped the country for several days, causing widespread power outages, travel delays and deaths in nine States, according to official figures.
In New York State, authorities described fierce conditions, particularly in Buffalo, with hours of whiteouts, bodies discovered in vehicles and under snow banks, and emergency personnel ranging “from car by car” in search of survivors.
The perfect storm of ferocious snow squalls, howling winds and sub-zero temperatures has forced the cancellation of more than 15,000 US flights in recent days, including nearly 4,000 on Monday, according to tracking site Flightaware.com, with Southwest Airlines particularly affected.
As of Tuesday, another 2,900 US flights have already been canceled as airlines struggle to get their crews, equipment and schedules back on track.
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Buffalo – a city no stranger to extreme winter conditions – is the epicenter of the crisis, buried in staggering amounts of snow. The death toll in the city of Buffalo rose to at least 28 Tuesday morning, rivaling the number from the infamous Buffalo blizzard of 1977, when nearly 30 people died. Officials said the total number of storm-related deaths in Erie County would be even higher.
“Buffalo has been ground zero for this storm,” Mayor Byron Brown said during a Tuesday briefing. “This is not normal snow conditions. This is a historic storm.”
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia said it was likely more victims would still be found.
With most of the city still “impassable,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz joined New York Governor. Kathy Hochul warned residents to hide and stay put.
“Certainly this is the blizzard of the century,” Hochul told reporters on Monday, adding that it was “far too early to say it’s over.”
Hochul said some towns in western New York had “30 to 40 inches of snow covered overnight” through Monday, and the National Weather Service said up to 9 more inches could fall. in some areas until Tuesday.
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Later Monday, Hochul spoke with President Biden, who offered “the full strength of the federal government” to support New York State and said he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for those who lost. loved ones in the storm, according to a White House. . statement.
The president also approved a declaration of emergency for New York, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to participate in recovery efforts. Mayor Brown thanked the President and Governor for their assistance.
“We focused on keeping people safe, working as a team, plowing to reach motorists stuck in vehicles, plowing and opening streets to reach people in medical emergencies,” Brown said. to CBS News in an interview Monday afternoon. “And then also worked with our electricity company, National Grid, to get them to the places needed to restore power.”
“This is probably one of the strongest winter storms this city has seen in over 50 years,” he added.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement that he was “deploying Task Force 1 from New Jersey to assist New York City in its rescue efforts after extreme winter conditions hit the state this weekend as c what the neighbors are doing”.
Temperatures “are expected to moderate across the Midwest and East over the next few days before this system,” the National Weather Service said in an advisory Tuesday morning, though it warned that “locally hazardous travel conditions” would persist.
CBS Buffalo affiliate WIVB-TV said Conditions were extremely cold on Tuesday night and many roads were still impassable. “Do not attempt to venture around Buffalo as getting stuck can quickly become a life-threatening situation with temperatures mostly in the teens overnight,” the station warned.
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But forecasters said the outlook would finally start to improve. “From Tuesday evening we will see the snow fade away and temperatures will start to warm up, even into Wednesday night. The rest of the week is expected to remain above freezing, which will promote melting,” WBIV reported.
“Currently, no widespread flooding is expected as creeks and creeks have room on their banks despite the nearly 2 to 6 inches of water being stored in the snowpack. Fortunately, not everything is expected to melt at once. .”
Members of the National Guard and other teams rescued hundreds of people from snow-covered cars and homes without power, but authorities said more people remained trapped.
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia called the storm “the worst” he had ever seen, with periods of zero visibility and authorities unable to respond to emergency calls.
“It was heartbreaking to get calls where families are with their kids and they say they’re freezing,” he told CNN.
Hochul, a Buffalo native, said she was stunned by what she saw while on a reconnaissance tour of the city.
“It’s (like) going to a war zone, and the vehicles along the roads are shocking,” Hochul said, describing eight-foot drifts against houses as well as snowplows and rescue vehicles.” buried” in the snow.
Extreme weather conditions sent temperatures below zero across the 48 contiguous U.S. states over the weekend, including communities in Texas along the Mexican border where some newly arrived migrants struggled to find a shelter.
Officials in Jackson, Mississippi, announced On Christmas Day, residents have to boil their drinking water due to water pipes bursting due to freezing temperatures. That order remained in place Tuesday as crews continued to try to find the source of the leaks.
“We know that many areas are without water or pressure. We know that for some this problem has been going on for days,” city officials said. website track recurring problems with the community’s water supply system.
Across the country, power outages at one point on Saturday left nearly 1.7 million customers without power in the bitter cold, according to the tracking site. PowerOutage.us. That number has dropped significantly, with some 13,000 homes and businesses still in the dark in Maine and New York state as of 9 a.m. ET Tuesday.
Due to frozen electrical substations, some Erie County residents are not expected to return to power until Tuesday, with one substation apparently buried in 18 feet of snow, a senior county official said.
Buffalo International Airport was scheduled to be closed through Tuesday and a driving ban remained in effect for the Buffalo area, although Poloncarz lifted the ban for the rest of the county on Tuesday, leaving a warning in place.
Ice on the roads and whiteout conditions also caused the temporary closure of some of the nation’s busiest transportation routes, including part of Interstate 70.
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