Due to severe frosts and a snow storm, 34 people died in the United States and four more in Canada, reports the Associated Press. 12 US states have extreme weather warnings in place. More than a million people in the country were left without electricity, thousands of flights were canceled at airports.
Extreme weather stretches from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. Temperatures dropped to -45 in parts of the country, according to the US National Weather Service.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said almost every fire truck was stuck in the city on Saturday. On Sunday, she urged people to respect the region's driving ban. Officials said the airport would remain closed until Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service said total snow at Buffalo Niagara International Airport was 43 inches (109 centimeters) as of 7 a.m. Sunday.
Two people died at their homes in the suburb of Cheektowaga, New York last Friday. They felt bad, called an ambulance, but because of the snowfall, the doctors could not get to them in time.
Erie County Executive Mark Polonkartz said 10 people died there during the storm, including six in Buffalo. He warned that there could be more dead. “Some were found in cars, some were found on the street in snowdrifts,” he said. “We know there are people who are stuck in cars for more than two days.”
AP tells the story of Dityak Ilung from Gaithersburg, Maryland, who was visiting relatives in Hamilton, Ontario for Christmas with his daughters, but their SUV got stuck in Buffalo. Ilunga and the children sat for many hours in a car with a running engine, almost covered in snow. By 4 am on Saturday, when the fuel was almost gone, they still tried to get to the nearest shelter. Ilunga carried his six-year-old daughter on his back, and his 16-year-old daughter followed him through the snowdrifts with a puppy in her arms. “If I had stayed in that car, I would have died there with my children,” Ilunga told reporters. “I will never forget this in my life.”
12 people aged 26 to 93 died in Erie County, New York, and another in Niagara County: a 27-year-old man got carbon monoxide poisoning because snow blocked his stove pipe. 10 people died in Ohio, including a utility worker who was electrocuted to death. Several people have died in car accidents in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky. A Vermont woman was killed by a falling branch. A homeless man was found during sub-zero temperatures in Colorado. A woman fell through the ice of the Wisconsin River.
