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CatastropheUnited States of America

Severe winter storms hit US, dozens of deaths reported

January 20, 2024

US officials closed schools and canceled flights, with much of the country battered by winter storms. Millions are now bracing for another weekend of harsh weather.

https://p.dw.com/p/4bUbw
Plow trucks clear a street in Des Moines, Iowa
Iowa is one of the states that was hit the hardest by the severe weatherImage: hip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Extreme weather in the United States has led to scores of weather-related deaths in the past week, many of them from hypothermia or traffic accidents, officials and US media reported on Friday.

Relentless storms have battered much of the US with low temperatures, heavy snow, ice storms, freezing rain and high winds. Affected regions include the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, Plains, South and Northeast.

Freezing temperatures, blizzard conditions and thick ice have closed schools, knocked out power to thousands and disrupted air travel. More than 1,100 flights were canceled on Friday and another 8,000 were delayed, according to the website Flightaware.com.

Delta Airlines de-icing crews spray down a plane on the tarmac of the John Glenn Columbus International Airport
Blizzards and snowstorms disrupted air travel across the USImage: James D. DeCamp/ZUMA Press Wire/picture alliance

Deadly winter in the US

Extreme weather conditions caused at least 55 deaths across the country, according to the AP news agency. The southern state of Tennessee alone recorded 19 deaths. They included five women returning home after a pilgrimage to Mecca who died Tuesday in a tractor-trailer crash on a Pennsylvania highway, police said.

In Kentucky, in the southeast, there were five weather-related deaths, Governor Andy Beshear said in a statement on Friday. In northwestern Oregon, three people were electrocuted when a live power line fell on their parked car during an ice storm Wednesday.

Deaths were also reported in Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire, New York, Wisconsin and Washington state, where five people are believed to have succumbed to exposure, local media reported, citing Seattle officials.

Pedestrians dressed for freezing temperatures wait to cross a street as snow falls accompanied by cold temperatures on Broadway in New York City
New York also reported causalities due to the extreme coldImage: John Angelillo/UPI Photo/IMAGO

Cold weekend in Midwest and South

Millions of Americans are bracing for another harsh weekend as the extreme cold extends into the southern United States, a region not used to cold weather.

Temperatures are expected to drop as low as -26 degrees Celsius (-15 Fahrenheit) over the weekend in much of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Kansas, the National Weather Service predicted on Friday.

"Another Arctic blast will bring cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills to the Plains and the Mississippi Valley to the eastern US," the service said.

dh/dj (AFP, Reuters)