Snowstorms and cold in the United States: at least 23 dead and more than 4 million people without electricity

The polar cold snap hitting much of the United States has killed at least 23 in different incidents and more than four million homes without electricity, as this has started to hamper COVID-19 vaccination.

Storm ‘Uri’, which has 105 million people on alert in different parts of the center, south and east of the country, has already left around 20 dead in various incidents such as falls, fires in homes without electricity, poisoning carbon monoxide in an attempt to generate heat, crash or car accidents, reports The New York Times.

Low temperatures also froze energy sources on Tuesday and left nearly four million homes without electricity, including three million in the state of Texas., which prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to call for investigations and reforms at the Texas Electrical Reliability Council because, in his own words, “the network has been anything but reliable in the past 48 hours.”

Meanwhile, in places like Houston, lack of energy has flooded hospital emergency rooms with patients affected by carbon monoxide, with some residents resorting to “dangerous” methods to warm themselves before freezing, according to various professionals.

On another side, Bad weather has hampered the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in places like Miami Dade County, where around 2,000 people will not receive their second dose on time due to delays due to the storm., as reported CNN.

The same goes for Colorado, where the arrival of 133,000 vaccines will be affected in the coming days.While in Ohio, there could be a two-day delay in vaccine delivery, according to its governor, Mike DeWine.

In addition, more than 73% of the country’s mainland was covered in snow on Tuesday, according to the Office of Water Prediction of the Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with layers in 45 of the 48 states in the region.

This Tuesday, at least 20 cities also suffered from the coldest climate in their history. Temperatures in the center of the country have dropped to levels not seen in a century, with less than 14 degrees in Oklahoma.

After leaving significant damage in the south of the country this week, the storm moves northwest on Tuesday, leaving heavy snow and ice on the way, while millions of people are expected to continue to suffer from its low temperatures until the end of the week, according to CNN.

“Significant accumulations of snow, sleet and freezing rain will spread over most of the Mid-South on Wednesday and Thursday,” the National Weather Service said. Specifically, storm warnings are in effect for parts of Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and all of Arkansas.

“We did not survive nearly a year of pandemic to lose people to a snowstorm or ice storm“Said the governor of Kentucky, Andrew Beshear.

Multiple collision caused by ice on a freeway near Dallas on the left at least six dead and dozens injured last Thursday.

Louisiana authorities on Monday confirmed the death of a man in the town of Lafayette, the first related to bad weather in the southern state.

A man also died in a car crash when moving over an ice cap in Kentucky, according to CBS.

In addition, boy died after falling into icy pond in Tennessee, as police told local media; Yes an old man died in texas, which brought the death toll from the cold snap to 11.

No longer accustomed to heating up records, Texas was particularly affected by this historic polar wave.

A thick blanket of snow covers the streets, trees and cars of the state capital, Austin. Some places have even experienced temperature drops of down to -18 degrees Celsius this weekend, while Houston hit -9 degrees.

United States President Joe Biden, who declared a state of emergency in Texas, spoke with governors of states affected by the storm on Tuesday. and he reaffirmed that the administration was ready to respond to requests for assistance, according to a White House statement.

He also guaranteed that he will deploy any additional federal resources available to help residents “weather this historic storm.”

In this regard, he also showed his gratitude to all the workers responding to the storm, who “are acting quickly under horrible conditions to save lives”.

Cold files

Besides Texas, other states such as Alabama, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mississippi and Oregon – where 300,000 people are without electricity – they declared a state of emergency.

More than 3,000 flights were canceled across the country on Monday according to the FlightAware website.

“More than 150 million Americans live in a place where extreme cold warnings have been implemented, freezing rain or snowstorm watch alerts, ”the NWS said Monday.

“This spectacular cold wave that hit the continental United States is linked to the combination of an arctic high with subzero temperatures and a very active low with waves of precipitationSaid the entity.

“Hundreds of cold records have already been and will continue to be recorded during this polar cold snap,” the NWS added.

In the center of the country, Temperatures have already reached record highs over the weekend of -45 degrees Celsius in parts of Minnesota, one of the coldest states in the United States.

Temperatures are estimated could fall well below seasonal averages in the center and southern plains of the country until Tuesday, the meteorological services warned.

(With information from AFP and Europa Press)

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