Parts of the US could get another 12 inches of snow after days of devastating blizzards that have wreaked havoc across North America – as New York’s governor warned: “We know the storm is coming back. Is.”
At least 57 people have died in the US after a bus overturned on icy roads in British Columbia after the storm killed four more in Canada.
In the US, 28 deaths occurred in New York state, most of them in Erie County, where the central city of Buffalo has been hit hardest.
President Joe Biden has authorized federal aid for New York state, where the storm left tens of thousands without power.
But temperatures have plunged below normal from the Rocky Mountains east to the Appalachians, with places like Jackson, Mississippi, running out of water because of frozen pipes bursting.
Desperate Buffalo residents flooded Facebook groups seeking help, NBC News reported.
One person asked for spare disposable nappies for the twins, and another asked for medicine for a sick toddler. Many people made urgent requests for formula milk for babies.
A Buffalo resident with four young children wrote: “Food is running low, stuck in our house…started to panic a bit when I looked outside and more snow was falling.”
Police in the city said on Sunday evening that there were “isolated” incidents of looting.
Erie County Executive Mark Polon-Carz called the blizzard “probably the worst storm in our lifetime,” warning: “It’s not over yet.”
He said some people were trapped in their cars for more than two days, with emergency services battling against the terrible weather to reach those in need.
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Buffalo Bills players and staff returned to Buffalo after the blizzard to find their vehicles buried in deep snow.
New York Gov. Cathy Hochol said over the weekend that many of the state’s ambulances and fire trucks themselves were stuck in the snow, and police in Buffalo appealed online to snowmobile owners for help.
On Monday, he called the storm “one for the ages,” adding that it and another big snowstorm just a month ago brought nearly as much snow as the region expected for the entire winter. .
People who had abandoned their cars in search of warmth and safety were now trying to find them again, many vehicles buried under the snow.
A soldier uses a front-end loader to clear snow in Cheektowaga, New York.
Snow from the spray of Lake Erie waves covered a restaurant during a winter storm in Hamburg, New York.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said 2 to 3 inches of snow was falling per hour in the Buffalo area, reaching up to 2 feet deep in Jefferson and northern Lewis counties. At the Buffalo airport, snow had reached a depth of about 50 inches (1.27 meters) by Monday morning.
The NWS said the weather is proving to be particularly deadly because of low temperatures and even low wind chills that are proving dangerous for travelers who are stranded or people working outside.
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In the Buffalo Region, Amherst, New York
And it is expected that more victims will be found as the snow clears – many of the already confirmed deaths were people who were trapped in their vehicles.
Some victims died while being snowed in and others died because ambulances could not reach them in time to deal with medical emergencies.
Baggage outside the Southwest Airlines baggage claim office from delayed and canceled flights at Hollywood-Burbank Airport. Photo: AP
Photo: AP
Many shops in Buffalo are closed and people have been asked not to travel, with some resorting to appeals for donations of food and other household necessities.
Upstate New York wasn’t the only area with western parts of the country bracing for the storm, as forecasters warned of a “strong surge of moisture” in the Pacific Northwest and California on Tuesday. There is a risk of flooding.
The storm also knocked out power in communities from Maine in the northeast to Seattle in the southwest.
Deaths from the tornado were reported across the country, including at least eight after crashes in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky. A woman also died after falling through the ice of a Wisconsin river.
On Monday, nearly 4,000 flights were canceled, according to tracking site FlightAware, led by cancellations by Southwest Airlines, where 70% of its flights were not operating as scheduled.
About 70,000 homes and businesses were without power during that time.
British Weather Services senior meteorologist Jim Dale told Sky News: “I was going to say this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I think we’re probably going to see a bit more of this type of event. are
“In this instance, it’s all to do with the displacement of the Arctic polar vortex. So that basically means the polar air is moving south.
“We saw it coming before it arrived. But the actual transition from what you might call mild conditions to absolute freezing happened within an hour in some states, so you get 10 to 15 degrees. Went down to 20 too early.”
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