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Amy B Wang
Generalist journalist covering national and last-minute news
Alex Horton
Generalist journalist covering national and last-minute news
Angela Fritz
Extreme weather, natural disasters, climate change
January 31 at 7:47
MADISON, Wisconsin – Millions of people in the Midwest have experienced a freeze normally reserved for the Arctic Circle, as temperatures fell to nearly 50 degrees below zero on Wednesday. The freezing cold, which is expected to hit record lows on Thursday morning, has been attributed to several deaths in the region and fears among the most vulnerable have increased as night fell.
Nearly unthinkable temperatures caused airlines to freeze gas lines, collapse power grids and maintain much of the northern United States. Power cuts swept through Wisconsin and Iowa, plunging thousands into a brief, unheated darkness. The dry, icy air instantly froze the exposed water, caused spontaneous nosebleeds and even made a brief foray into the outside extremely dangerous.
Authorities in several states have linked at least six deaths to the weather, including several people who could have died of cold in Milwaukee, Detroit and Rochester, Minnesota. The authorities have announced that a death would have been reported in Peoria, Illinois.
In Iowa City, Iowa University officials said an "unresponsive" student was found behind a university hall and later died in the hospital. Authorities did not reveal the cause of their deaths, but police told a local television channel that they thought extreme weather was a factor; According to Press Citizen, the air temperature at the time the student was found was minus 22, with a wind chill of minus 51.
The courses at the university were canceled from Tuesday evening to Thursday noon due to the weather. "We urge students, faculty, and staff to exercise good judgment and avoid serious risks during these extreme weather conditions," said the school in a campus alert.
[Some of the coldest air in the world is descending on the Midwest]
The governors of Wisconsin and Michigan declared the state of emergency and ordered the closure of all state government offices. some state agencies in Illinois have also been closed.
"I urge people to prepare for this harsh climate and to exercise caution when traveling or outdoors," said Tony Evers, Governor of Wisconsin.
The capital building in Madison, where people sought shelter during office hours, remained open while the outside temperature fell to minus 24 ° C; the estimated wind chill gave the impression that it was minus 48 degrees.
A harbor lighthouse is covered with snow and ice on Lake Michigan in Chicago. (Nam Y. Huh / AP)
It was colder than Alaska's North Slope in many places, including Norris Camp, Minnesota, where temperatures dropped to minus 48 degrees Wednesday, with wind chill indexed to minus 65 degrees, making the city the coldest place in the United States on Wednesday night and one of the coldest spots on the planet.
Even hell, Mich., S is frozen: it was expected that the temperatures at the community outside of Ann Arbor would drop to minus-26 during the night up to On Thursday. The nearby University of Michigan has taken the rare step of canceling its courses until Thursday.
From Minnesota to Michigan, the polar vortex has resulted in many school closures, postal service disruptions and thousands of flight cancellations, most to and from Chicago. Dozens of restaurants, grocery stores and cafes have been closed for the day or reduced opening hours. In Chicago, "Disney on Ice" and the musical "Hamilton" were among the many shows that go night. by this time, the show could not continue.
For the most vulnerable in the region, even those who have endured the long winters of the Upper Midwest, this polar vortex has been particularly perilous.
Karen Andro, director of Home's Ministries of the First United Methodist Church in Madison, has spent most of the past few days coordinating with other non-profit organizations and government agencies to organize transportation, hot meals and warm-up centers for homeless people in the city. She mentioned past winters, when one person died of cold on the steps of a local church and another had a heart attack while walking between shelters and said that the services here have improved.
"The cold exacerbates everything," said Andro, pointing out that homeless people with mental illness, disabilities, and health problems were at extreme risk.
Early Wednesday morning, there was a small but dangerous interruption of service. An hour before sunrise, dozens of men, bundled up and taking their belongings in grocery bags and suitcases, ventured into the icy morning air. It was minus 24 degrees, and the winds gave an impression of minus 48.
"They should take a bus and pick it up right here," said 66-year-old Randy George Friesen, who was carrying two bags six blocks away from the auxiliary shelter where he was sleeping Tuesday night at Porchlight headquarters. an organization that helps the homeless. The man's glbades were frosty, his snow-white beard was frozen and he had used scarves to tie a blue blanket around his broad shoulders.
Friesen said she did not understand why there was no shuttle between the two hot buildings.
"It will never happen," said Murrel Swift, 48, who also traveled between two shelters. Tiny white crystals had accumulated on his thick lashes.
Inside the shelter, Maurice Robinson, the night manager, was shaken. One guest attacked another with a bicycle lock, prompting police, firefighters and the EMS to descend on Porchlight. On nights like Tuesday, when the weather is life-threatening, the city's shelters do not deny anyone – even if someone has already been banned because of bad behavior or drunkenness.
Porchlight was more crowded than usual and Robinson had to place people on mats along a wall of the hallway. At least eight men flocked a few hours after the scheduled time of registration – at 1:09, 2:22 and 2:37.
"The cold attracts a lot of people," said Robinson.
Even some Midwest homes were not cold-resistant shelters for hardened residents.
Brian Wallheimer, a science writer at Purdue University, invited his three young children to his home in Rockford, Ill., After schools closed on Wednesday. The icy air has infiltrated his two-story home northwest of Chicago, he said, and frost has accumulated on the windowsills and door hinges.
"I have never seen this happen," said Wallheimer, 39, while his children – ages 9, 6 and 4 – were planning to build a covered fort in the basement.
In addition to the closure of elementary schools and universities in the Midwest, Pittsburgh's districts and colleges in Buffalo have also canceled their courses due to extreme weather conditions.
Wind chill estimates dropped to less than 50 in the Dakota and northern Minnesota on Wednesday. Arctic air will tighten in the Midwest by Thursday afternoon; temperatures could even approach zero degrees in Chicago and Milwaukee. By the end of the day, daytime temperatures will be above freezing in most of the Midwest.
As Chicago neared record lows before the expected thaw, the Chicago area Metra commuter train suspended some train services after extreme temperatures caused wiring problems. According to the Associated Press, some Chicago Transit Authority buses have been turned into mobile warming shelters for the homeless. Lyft said it would offer free trips to the city's warm-up centers, as well as twin cities, Madison, Milwaukee and Detroit.
In Rochester, Minnesota, where temperatures dropped to minus 27 degrees on Wednesday, all municipal transit services were suspended after the mechanical difficulties of the buses began. Xcel Energy has asked Minnesota customers to lower their thermostats to 63 degrees until Thursday morning, "if possible," in order to "ensure that all of our customers continue to benefit from the gas service during this extremely cold weather."
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made a similar request on Wednesday night, urge the Michigandans of the Lower Peninsula to lower their thermostats to 65 degrees or less by Friday at noon, citing "an extremely high demand for natural gas and an incident at a facility".
Snowplow erases West Washington Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin (Lauren Justice for Washington Post)
Nearly 13,500 customers suffered power outages in Wisconsin and Iowa on Wednesday noon, according to utility breakdown charts. Workers struggled to restore electricity in a race to keep homes and businesses warm in the cold chill.
Most failures were resolved within hours.
About 900 We Energies customers were stripped of electricity for about an hour and a half Wednesday in West Allis, Wisconsin, after neighbors of a residential street heard a transformer noise and saw a spark just before the lights go out.
They closed their curtains to prevent cold air from seeping around the windows and opened the doors of the cabinets to prevent the pipes from freezing.
"I was amazed at how quickly they were recovered," said Dan Bark, whose house is diagonally facing damaged power lines. "We were trying to find emergency plans."
He thinks of taking his family and cats to his mother's house nearby. Bark has a generator, but he was in the garage – and frozen. He conceded that it was not ideal, but he had never seen the temperatures drop so low.
"It's the coldest of all times," said Bark.
Wang, Fritz and Horton were reported from Washington.
Read more:
PHOTOS: See how the Midwest is ready to face a record cold
Four cold weather experiences to distract you from the fact that you can not feel your face
"We're starting to have problems": The Kentucky governor said America was weak about closing schools during a polar vortex
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