The extreme cold that has hit the United States for several days has been accompanied by heavy snowfall and strong winds, particularly in the Great Lakes region, causing the death of at least fifty people across the countries and wreaking havoc on road and air transport. These bad weather described as not arriving “only once in a generation” should begin to subside, Tuesday December 27, in the East and the Midwest.
More than 10,000 flights canceled in a few days, chaos at airports and a persistent mess: Southwest Airlines, much more affected than other American companies by the extreme cold wave in the United States, found itself on Tuesday under the fire of criticism. After canceling around 75% of its flights on Monday, the company had cut another 63% on Tuesday morning and warned that it would only take off around a third of its planes supposed to fly “over the next few days”. The management has apologized for a situation which it describes itself as“unacceptable”.
The other major airlines in the country also faced difficulties, for example Delta and United having canceled 1,835 and 1,257 flights respectively between Thursday and Monday, according to the FlightAware site. With the rise in temperatures, however, operations resumed on Tuesday: American Airlines, United, Delta and JetBlue had cancellation rates of 0% to 2%.
Higher toll is feared in Buffalo
Winter storm Elliott has already killed 28 people in Erie County, which includes the city of Buffalo, New York. A higher toll is to be feared, as relief progresses and clears. “Unfortunately, the police expect this number [de morts] increased “Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said on Twitter.
“We are recovering from one of the worst storms we have ever seen, unfortunately with the highest death toll we have ever had in a storm”Erie County official Mark Poloncarz said Tuesday at a press conference. “We will never forget him”he added.
In Buffalo, a 22-year-old young woman, trapped by snow, died in her car, according to her family. A video sent by the victim and posted by his sister shows him rolling down the window of his vehicle, surrounded by snow during the blizzard.
Still in Buffalo, a region accustomed to harsh winters, Zila Santiago and her four young children spent eleven long hours in their car before being rescued, according to the New York Times. Mr Santiago said he called the emergency services, the national guard and friends to come and help him, in vain – even the emergency services were blocked by snow. So he revved the engine to keep his kids warm and fed them some juice from the trunk until a snowplow finally came to their rescue at dawn.
“We had rescuers who flew to the aid of other rescuers”Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney, deputy mayor of Buffalo, told CNN on Tuesday. “It was necessary to first help the emergency services so that they could go and help the population. »
Driving ban maintained
The driving ban remained in effect Tuesday for the city of Buffalo, a tweeted Mark Poloncarz. “Please stay out of the city of Buffalo. You are hampering clearing efforts”he said Tuesday to the press, warning that the conditions remained dangerous.
The US Weather Service, NWSthus warned the inhabitants against “locally dangerous traffic conditions”. The total of confirmed deaths by authorities across nine US states is at least fifty. In Ohio, road accidents related to bad weather claimed nine victims, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the state highway patrol agency, confirmed to Agence France-Presse.
Rescue teams evacuated hundreds of people from snow-covered cars and homes without electricity; others could still be blocked by snow, authorities said. Many homes were left without power – up to 1.7 million on Saturday, in the heart of the storm, according to the site poweroutage.us.