The extreme weather, a mix of prolonged blizzards and historic cold, plunged wind chill temperatures in all 48 contiguous US states below freezing this weekend, stranded holiday travelers with thousands of flights cancelled and trapped residents in ice- and snow-encrusted homes.
The challenge of digging out and reestablishing some normalcy around Buffalo, New York, where a snowstorm deemed the region's worst in 45 years buried snow ploughs, immobilised drivers in their vehicles, and killed at least 13 people, fell to road and utility employees on Monday.
An Arctic freeze and winter storm front that had covered the majority of the United States for days, as far south as the Mexican border, came to an end late on Friday when the deadly snowstorm formed and pounded western New York during the Christmas holiday weekend.
Since late last week, at least 50 individuals have perished in weather-related incidents in the United States, according to an NBC News count, while CNN reported 26 fatalities.
One of the hardest-hit areas was the larger Buffalo area, which is located close to the Canadian border on the shore of Lake Erie.
Governor Kathy Hochul predicted that the storm will be remembered as "the Blizzard of '22" because of the numbing cold, howling winds, and heavy "lake-effect" snow that was caused by precipitation being picked up by arctic air travelling over warmer lake waters.
The official death toll from the storm in Buffalo and other parts of Erie County rose to 13 on Sunday, and police predicted it would continue to grow as more bodies discovered in snowdrifts or buried automobiles were reviewed and determined to be weather-related fatalities.
The greatest winter storm to pound Buffalo, New York State's second-largest city, since a severe blizzard that killed nearly 30 people in 1977, the governor dubbed it a "epic, once-in-a-lifetime" weather calamity.
Nearly six weeks after a record-breaking but short-lived lake-effect storm hit western New York, the most recent blizzard, which at first overwhelmed emergency crews, hit the area.
The opinions posted here do not belong to 🔰www.indiansdaily.com. The author is solely responsible for the opinions.
As per the IT policy of the Central Government, insults against an individual, community, religion or country, defamatory and inflammatory remarks, obscene and vulgar language are punishable offenses. Legal action will be taken for such expressions of opinion.