Dozens dead as winter storm continues to grip US and Canada
Millions are experiencing another day battered by heavy snow, as Callum Watkinson reports
The deep freeze from a deadly winter storm in the United States will continue into the week, with at least 49 people killed across the country.
The storm is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.
The extreme weather stretched from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico.
Some parts have been as cold as -40C or even -57C over the past few days in conditions cold enough to suffer frostbite on exposed skin in just a matter of minutes.
About 60% of the US population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians.
The National Weather Service said on Sunday that the frigid arctic air “enveloping much of the eastern half of the US will be slow to moderate”.
That’s especially unwelcome news for Buffalo, which saw hurricane-force winds and snow causing whiteout conditions that paralysed emergency response efforts.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said almost every fire truck in the city was stranded on Saturday and implored people to respect an ongoing driving ban in the region.
Officials said the airport would be shut through Tuesday morning and the National Weather Service said the snow total at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport stood at 43 inches (109 centimetres) at 7 am on Sunday.
Huge snowdrifts nearly covered cars and there were thousands of houses, some adorned in unlit holiday displays, dark from a lack of power.
With snow falling on impassable streets, forecasters warned an additional 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimetres) of snow was possible in some areas through early Monday morning amid wind gusts of 40 mph.
Police said on Sunday evening that there were two “isolated” instances of looting during the storm.
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Two people died in their suburban Cheektowaga, New York, homes on Friday when emergency crews could not reach them in time to treat their medical conditions.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said 10 more people died there during the storm, including six in Buffalo, and warned there may be more dead.
“Some were found in cars, some were found on the street in snowbanks,” Mr Poloncarz said. “We know there are people who have been stuck in cars for more than two days.” Freezing conditions and power outages had Buffalonians scrambling to get to anywhere with heat amid what Hochul called the longest sustained blizzard conditions ever in the city. Travelers’ weather woes continued, with hundreds of flight cancellations already and more expected after a bomb cyclone - when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm - developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.
The storm knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle. But heat and lights were steadily being restored across the US.
According to poweroutage.us, nearly 200,000 customers were without power on Sunday at 3pm - down from a peak of 1.7 million.
Storm-related deaths reported:
12 in Erie County, New York, ranging in age from 26 to 93 years old,
One in Niagara County, where a 27-year-old man was overcome by carbon monoxide after snow blocked his furnace
10 in Ohio, including an electrocuted utility worker and those killed in multiple car crashes
Six motorists killed in crashes in Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky;
One Vermont woman struck by a falling branch
An apparently homeless man found amid Colorado’s sub-zero temperatures
A woman who fell through Wisconsin river ice