[ad_1]
At least eight people died in the US Midwest as the region shivers under the worst cold snap of its decades.
A student from Iowa found dead outside a university building is one of the victims of the deadly freeze.
Hospitals treat patients reporting frostbite because life from one country to another is down.
The most dangerous explosions could still arrive Thursday. Ninety million people – one-third of the United States – experienced temperatures below -17 ° C (0 ° F).
Some 250 million Americans in total have experienced "polar vortex" conditions, but southern states such as Florida have escaped the brutal cold.
How did the dead happen?
- University of Iowa student Gerald Belz, 18, was found unconscious behind a campus building before dawn on Wednesday and died later in hospital. The officials said the weather was a factor. His father told the local KCRG news channel that Gerald was a "mom's boy with a hard outside".
- A 70-year-old man from Detroit, Michigan, was found dead in front of a neighbor's home on Wednesday.
- Another 70-year-old Michigan man was found dead in his neighborhood. Officials said that he was "badly dressed for the weather" and was probably disoriented
- On Tuesday, Charley Lampley, 55, died of cold in a garage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after "being apparently collapsed after shoveling snow," according to a medical examiner.
- An 82-year-old man from Beijing, Illinois, died of hypothermia after apparently falling in front of his home on Tuesday.
- A 75-year-old man was killed by a snow plow near Chicago on Monday. The driver has since been put on paid leave while waiting for an investigation, according to WGN9 News
- In northeastern Indiana, a young couple died as a result of a collision on icy roads.
What is the forecast?
Thursday, the third American city, Chicago, should reach its lowest record of 1985, -32 ° C (-25 ° F), according to meteorologists. The city has already exceeded the record of 31 January.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that Rockford, Illinois, west of Chicago, broke its record -27 ° F (-32 ° C) record when temperatures plummeted Thursday morning. -34 ° C (-30 ° F).
The cities of Iowa have also broken records of temperature.
Cotton, Minnesota, however, was Thursday the coldest place in the United States, with a low of -48 ° C (-56 ° F) based on preliminary data.
On Thursday, the cold is heading east, bringing sub-zero temperatures to northeastern cities such as Boston.
Regions downstream of the Great Lakes should be buried by intense "snow lakes" until Thursday evening.
The region near Buffalo, New York, is expected to experience the heaviest snowfall. Snow could fall at speeds of 3 inches to 5 inches (7 cm to 12 cm) per hour.
The freezing cold weather should loosen on Friday.
Taking into account the wind chill, the Midwest and Great Lakes felt temperatures approaching -40 ° C (-40 ° F) and -53 ° C (-63 ° F), which is enough to cause frostbite in less than five minutes.
But by the end of the weekend, Chicago could experience temperatures of up to 10 ° C (50 ° F).
"It will take at least 60 degrees for Chicago," Reuters news agency David Hamrick, a National Weather Service forecaster, told Reuters.
How does the cold wave affect daily life?
The Arctic climate could cost billions of dollars in the United States. In 2014, a similar freeze cost the country about $ 5 billion (£ 3.8 billion), CBS News reported.
In Minnesota, the natural gas company Xcel Energy has asked residents to reduce their home's thermostats to 17 ° C (63 ° F), to help them cope with the heating demand.
Michigan residents have received similar requests from their utility companies as vendors struggle to keep states warm.
The Native American tribes of the Midwestern states help their members get warming during the cold weather because many live in substandard housing, the Associated Press reported.
Detroit has had more than two dozen frozen water pipes during this week. A spokesman for the city told the Associated Press that the pipes had been installed up to 1.8 m below the jelly line, but with such low temperatures, the ground is still frozen.
The US Postal Service has suspended all mail deliveries for the second day in parts of six states.
More than 2,300 flights were canceled and another 3,500 were delayed due to the polar vortex.
As ice and snow continue to accumulate, roads have become increasingly dangerous in the northern United States. In Illinois, police said they helped more than 1,300 motorists and received 460 calls in eight hours – 10 times the norm.
A woman in the state was surprised at 115 km / h (185 mph) on a snowy road with a speed limit of 56 km / h.
At least two people were seriously injured in a stack of 27 cars on icy roads in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.
Twenty-one vehicles, including a truck, were involved in a pile up in Buffalo, New York, during a snowstorm Wednesday. Officials did not reveal the details of their injuries, reported WKBW News.
It was reported that the truck would not have been on the road at that time due to a weather-related ban.
In Minnesota, prison visits have been canceled by the cold, according to the New York Times.
How hot is Chicago?
The city of Illinois has become a frozen ghost town after temperatures have dropped to -30 ° C (-22 ° F), colder than parts of the Antarctic.
A good Samaritan paid 70 homeless Chicagoans to stay in a hotel as temperatures dropped.
Salvation Army spokeswoman Jacqueline Rachev told the Washington Post, "This is a deadly situation for anyone, and we are delighted that someone can do it."
Most of the thousands of canceled flights this week came from Chicago's airports – O & # 39; Hare International is ranked among the 10 busiest airports in the world.
Amtrak also canceled all trains to Chicago Wednesday, affecting 55 trains, and announced that most would be canceled Thursday.
With the Midwest City being one of the hubs of the company, nationwide train services could be affected.
The thrill was still too much for Chicago's Disney on Ice, which canceled its performance on Wednesday.
More than 600 local schools have been closed, keeping 360,000 students at home.
[ad_2]
Source link
