Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling
temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and canceled holiday
gatherings Friday from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly
unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60% of the US population to
some sort of winter weather advisory or warning.
More
than 200 million people were under an advisory or warning on Friday, the
National Weather Service said. The weather service’s map depicts one of the
greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever, forecasters
said.
Power
outages have left about 1.4 million homes and businesses in the dark, according
to the website PowerOutage, which tracks utility reports.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public
utility, ended its rolling blackouts Friday afternoon but continued to urge
homes and businesses to conserve power.
In Georgia, hundreds of people in Atlanta and northern parts
of the state were without power and facing the possibility of sub-zero wind
chills without heat.
Nearly 5,000 flights within, into or out of the United States
were canceled Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, causing more
mayhem as travelers try to make it home for the holidays.
“We’ve just got to stay positive,” said Wendell Davis, who
plays basketball with a team in France and was waiting at O’Hare in Chicago on
Friday after a series of flight cancellations.
The
huge storm stretched from border to border. In Canada, WestJet canceled all
flights Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, beginning at 9.00 am
as meteorologists in the country warned of a potential once-in-a-decade weather
event.
In Mexico, migrants waited near the US border in
unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a US Supreme Court decision on
whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from
seeking asylum.
Forecasters
said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in
a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard
conditions, including heavy winds and snow.
Multiple highways were closed and crashes claimed at least
six lives, officials said. At least two people died in a massive pileup
involving some 50 vehicles on the Ohio Turnpike.
A Kansas City, Missouri, driver was killed Thursday after
skidding into a creek, and three others died Wednesday in separate crashes on
icy northern Kansas roads.
Michigan also faced a deluge of crashes, including one
involving nine semitrailers.
Brent Whitehead said it took him 7.5 hours __ instead of the
usual six __ to drive from his home near Minneapolis to his parents’ home
outside Chicago on Thursday in sometimes icy conditions.
“Thank goodness I had my car equipped with snow tires,” he
said.
Activists also were rushing to get homeless people out of
the cold. Nearly 170 adults and children were keeping warm early Friday in
Detroit at a shelter and a warming center that are designed to hold 100 people.
“This is a lot of extra people” but it wasn’t an option to
turn anyone away, said Faith Fowler, the executive director of Cass Community
Social Services, which runs both facilities.
In Chicago, Andy Robledo planned to spend the day organizing
efforts to check on people without housing through his nonprofit, Feeding
People Through Plants. Robledo and volunteers build tents modeled on
ice-fishing tents, including a plywood subfloor.
“It’s not a house, it’s not an apartment, it’s not a hotel
room. But it’s a huge step up from what they had before,” Robledo said.
In
Portland, Oregon, nearly 800 people slept at five emergency shelters on
Thursday night, as homeless outreach teams fanned out to distributed
cold-weather survival gear. Shelters called for volunteers amid high demand and
staffing issues. Employees were laid low by flu or respiratory symptoms or kept
from work by icy roads, officials said.
DoorDash and Uber Eats suspended delivery service in some
states, and bus service was disrupted in places like Seattle.
The power ceased at Jaime Sheehan’s Maryland bakery for
about 90 minutes Friday, shutting off the convection oven and stilling the
mixer she needed to make butter cream.
“Thankfully, all of the orders that were going out today
already finished yesterday,” she said a few moments before the power returned.
At
about the same time, Corey Newcomb and his family were entering their sixth
hour without power at their home in the small town of Phenix, Virginia.
“We are coping and that’s about it,” Newcomb said in a
Facebook message.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said she was deploying the
National Guard to haul timber to the Oglala Sioux and Rosebud Sioux tribes and
help with snow removal.
“We have families that are way out there that we haven’t
heard from in two weeks,” Wayne Boyd, chief of staff to the Rosebud Sioux
president, said.
Fearing that some are running out of food, the tribe was
hoping to get a helicopter on Saturday to check on the stranded.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe, meanwhile, was using snowmobiles to
reach members who live at the end of miles-long dirt roads.
“It’s been one heck of a fight so far,” said tribal
President Frank Star Comes Out.
On the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Harlie Young was huddled with five children and
her 58-year-old father around a wood stove as 12-foot (3.6-meter) snow drifts
blocked the house.
“We’re just trying to look on the bright side that they’re
still coming and they didn’t forget us,” she said Friday, as the temperature
plunged to frigid lows.
The weather service is forecasting the coldest Christmas in
more than two decades in Philadelphia, where school officials shifted classes
online Friday.
Atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the tallest peak in
the Northeast, the wind topped 150 mph (241 kph).
In
Boston, rain combined with a high tide, sent waves over the seawall at Long
Wharf and flooded some downtown streets. It was so bad in Vermont that Amtrak
canceled service for the day, and nonessential state offices were closing
early.
“I’m hearing from crews who are seeing grown trees ripped
out by the roots,” Mari McClure, president of Green Mountain Power, the state’s
largest utility, said at a news conference.
Calling
it a “kitchen sink storm,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of
emergency. In parts of New York City, tidal flooding inundated roads, homes and
businesses Friday morning, with police trudging through knee-deep water to pull
stranded motorists to safety in Queens.
In Iowa, sports broadcaster Mark Woodley became a Twitter
sensation after he was called on to do live broadcasts outdoors in the wind and
snow because sporting events were called off. By midday Friday, a compilation
of his broadcasts had been viewed nearly 5 million times on Twitter.
“I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news,” he told an
anchor. “The good news is that I can still feel my face right now. The bad news
is, I kind of wish I couldn’t.”
