Nearly 2 Million Without Power Amid U.S. Deep Freeze, Thousands of Flights Canceled

Dec 24 (Reuters) – An arctic explosion gripped much of the United States on Saturday, leaving nearly 2 million people without power, at least 14 dead in weather-related car crashes and thousands stranded due to flight cancellations.

As plummeting temperatures were expected to bring the coldest Christmas Eve on record, energy systems across the country were strained by rising heat demand and storm damage to power lines.

Some 1.8 million homes and businesses in the United States were left without power early Saturday morning, according to tracking site Poweroutage.us.

Many power companies were asking customers to save energy by not running large appliances and turning off unnecessary lights.

The disruptions have also upended the daily routines and vacation plans of millions of Americans during one of the busiest travel times of the year.

Nearly 2,000 US flights were canceled on Saturday, with total delays of 4,000, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. More than 5,000 flights were canceled on Friday, flight tracking said.

The American Automobile Association had estimated that 112.7 million people planned to venture 80 km or more from home between Friday and January 2.

Fatal car crashes across the country have claimed at least 14 lives in weather-related crashes, according to media reports.

Two motorists were killed and many others injured in a 50-vehicle pileup that closed the Ohio Turnpike in both directions during a blizzard near Toledo, forcing an evacuation of stranded motorists on buses to prevent them from freezing in their cars, officials said. .

Three of the deaths were reported in Kentucky, where Governor Andy Beshear on Saturday warned residents to “stay home, stay safe, stay alive.”

“I know it’s really difficult because it’s Christmas Eve. But we have dozens and dozens of crashes,” he told an online briefing. “It’s just not safe.”

[1/7]A view of an area after heavy snowfall in Regent, North Dakota, U.S., December 23, 2022, in this image obtained from social media. Blake Rafferty/[email protected]/via REUTERS

Blizzard conditions remained Saturday for Buffalo, New York and its surrounding Lake Erie county in western New York where between 4 and 6 feet of snow will fall by Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

The city imposed a driving ban on Friday, which remained in effect Saturday, and all three Buffalo-area border bridges were closed to inbound traffic from Canada due to weather conditions.

Temperatures are expected to peak Saturday at just 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 Celsius) in Pittsburgh, surpassing its previous coldest Christmas Eve record of 13 F, set in 1983, the (NWS) said.

Cities in Georgia and South Carolina — Athens and Charleston — were also set to record their coldest temperatures on Christmas Eve Day, while Washington, DC, was set to experience its coldest December 24 since 1989.

The wave of Christmas temperature records was predicted as a deep US freeze sharpened by perilous wind chills continued to envelope much of the nation’s eastern two-thirds.

“The cold snap will persist through Christmas,” said meteorologist Ashton Robinson Cook of the NWS Weather Prediction Center.

Minneapolis was the coldest place in America on Saturday at minus 6 degrees Fahrenheit, and on Christmas morning the coldest place will be Fargo, North Dakota at minus 20, he said.

It will start to moderate west to east across America, with the high plains and central United States returning to normal by Tuesday, but it won’t warm up on the east coast until Thursday Friday, a he declared.

“Right now it’s cold,” he said.

The inclement weather has prompted authorities across the country to open warming centers in libraries and police stations while working to expand temporary shelters for the homeless. The challenge has been compounded by the influx of migrants crossing the US southern border in the thousands in recent weeks.

The National Weather Service said its map of existing or impending weather hazards “represents one of the largest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever.”

Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Joel Schectman, Gabriella Borter, Tim Reid, Lisa Baertlein, Erwin Seba, Susan Heavey, Laila Kearney, Alyson McClaren, Aleksandra Michalska and Scott DiSavino; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Aurora Ellis, William Mallard and Diane Craft

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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