US battles record-breaking cold, 43 lives lost as severe winter storms batter the nation
A series of severe winter storms have wreaked havoc across many US states, killing dozens of people, destroying properties and leaving thousands without power.
The weather service has issued more alerts for snow and ice in the coming days, as the country faces one of the worst cold spells of the season.
The death toll from the storms has risen to at least 43 in nine states, according to CNN. Some of the victims died from weather-related causes, such as hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning and car accidents. In Tennessee, 14 people lost their lives in various incidents this week, the state health department said.
A new winter weather advisory was in effect for parts of the state on Thursday morning.
The severe winter stomped lives in each state
In Oregon, a fallen powerline killed three people and injured a baby in a car in Portland on Wednesday, during an ice storm. Witnesses said the two adults and a teenager were electrocuted when they stepped out of the car and a bystander rescued the baby.
In Pennsylvania, a tractor-trailer hit and killed five women from New York who were at the scene of a minivan crash on Interstate 81 on Tuesday, in the snowy north-east of the state.
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled or delayed, and many schools and offices have been closed. More snow and ice are expected to hit the midwest, the north-east and the north-west over the weekend, as the cold snap shows no signs of easing soon.
“The Lower 48 [states] have had an exhausting stretch of busy weather,” the NWS station in La Crosse, Wisconsin, tweeted, along with an animation of how winter weather warnings and watches spread across the US this week, reaching as far as northern Florida.
Experts say the cold spell will end next week
“The nation needs a break from this. But it won’t happen right away,” the Weather Channel said on its website.
“Another wave of cold air will sweep through the Plains and Mississippi Valley on Thursday and Friday, and then linger in the south-east over the weekend. This wave of cold air won’t be as extreme as the previous one in most areas. But it will still be unpleasant.”
On Thursday night, temperatures were set to drop again and stay below freezing in cities such as Oklahoma City, Nashville, Philadelphia and New York City, forecasters said.
AccuWeather said on Thursday that new snowstorms would cover areas from Chicago to Pittsburgh, Washington DC and New York.
“This storm will be colder than what most people are used to in much of the midwest and the north-east, and the low ground and air temperatures and the nature of the snow will make it pile up quickly on roads and sidewalks,” AccuWeather’s senior meteorologist, Brett Anderson, said.
The NWS also warned of a new wave of freezing rain and heavy mountain snow in the Pacific north-west until the weekend, with heavy rain on the coasts of Oregon and Washington causing flash floods where the soil is already wet.