The Arctic ‘bomb’ has already left 22 dead in the United States

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Low temperatures and blizzards are causing roads to collapse, thousands of families without electricity, making this Christmas the coldest in the country since records were kept

The historic polar storm that hits the United States has already claimed 22 deaths. It is the coldest Christmas since records were kept. With most of the country frozen in sub-zero temperatures this Sunday morning as low as nine degrees below zero in Washington, or extreme temperatures of -40 degrees in the northern states, authorities are facing a wintry episode that could hit even Buffalo. unknown, where the cold of the season lasts until March and the thermometer seldom rises above zero degrees. Today, the inhabitants of this area are faced with a thermal sensation of -17º.

It is one of seven states to report the existence of fatalities. An estimated two-thirds of the US population is affected by this cold ‘bomb’, while half a million people are without power (1.7 million homes on Friday) and some 5,000 planes are parked on the ground. The icy weather will last for several days, although meteorologists are sure that a truce will begin this afternoon and little by little the storms, blizzards and hurricanes, the worst of the storm, will end.

Authorities confirm this Sunday that, apart from the fatalities, hundreds of people have suffered injuries and trauma, mainly due to the numerous recorded traffic accidents on the icy roads or falls in the streets. The worst of all happened on the Ohio Turnpike, where 46 vehicles collided Friday night, leaving four dead. It took a huge logistical effort to clear the road, which was impassable for hours and had turned for tens of kilometers into something that closely resembled a junkyard with 15 wrecked semi-trailers on it.

Rescue services are also multiplied with warnings of frostbite symptoms and gas poisoning from vehicle heaters or exhaust pipes clogged by snow. In this sense, it should be noted that an unknown number of Americans have had to spend Christmas Eve locked in their cars on the tarmac or sheltered in restaurants that decided not to close to accommodate those surprised by the snow. The roads are currently one of the most worrying elements. Despite repeated official calls for citizens not to get behind the wheel and the fact that the governor of New York has banned driving in much of the state, police believe hundreds of families and drivers have spent the night on the road. immobilized, in many cases on roads that are difficult to access. Two of the recorded deaths occurred precisely because of the inability of rescue services to arrive in time to treat medical emergencies.

All deaths have been recorded in Ohio, the state worst hit by adversity, with eight dead, Kansas, New York and Kentucky (three fatalities in each as recorded this morning), Colorado (two) and Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin , with one death in each area so far. However, authorities fear that the deadly balance will increase as the hours go by in the suspected circumstance that the brutal drop in temperature has left many people trapped outside, unprotected or in abandoned buildings in the case of the homeless. News agencies report that some 315,000 homes and businesses are without power. Although normality is returning little by little, of the few flights that have been able to take off from airports in the eastern and middle eastern US since Friday, one of them had to land minutes later after being struck by two lightning bolts. an idea of ​​the ferocity of storms. The plane landed without any significant problems.

The National Weather Service had already warned as the weekend approached that this “bomb cyclone,” a “once in a generation” storm, was approaching. And they were right. The low temperature records have not been published. Given this fact and the increase in demand for electricity, several governors have asked the population to ration energy consumption to avoid supply problems in the coming days.

Source: La Verdad

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