Air chaos continues in the US after a historic winter storm

Air chaos continues in the U.S. this Tuesday after a historic winter storm named Elliott More than 60 people died During the holidays, half of them are in New York state.

Temperatures rose on Tuesday as the storm abated in the east and south of the country Another cold front reached the West Coast with snow and rainAccording to the National Weather Service (NWS).

NWS forecast for this Tuesday A minimum of 17°C below zero In the extreme northeast of the country, 8°C below zero in the Great Lakes and 5°C below zero in parts of the east coast.

Despite Elliott’s decision, air chaos continues in the U.S. just days before another holiday, New Year’s. This Tuesday they are More than 3,000 flights have been cancelledAccording to the FlightAware portal, it left thousands of passengers on the ground who were planning to travel during the holidays.

Users of Southwest Airlines were the most affected, accounting for 63% of cancellations and their phone service lines being saturated.

Lynn Montgomery, president of the Southwest Flight Attendant Association, told the network CNN what “Not enough staff for schedule changes”The result was “a domino effect that created chaos across the country.”

Bob Jordan, CEO of the Dallas, Texas-based company, told the newspaper Wall Street Journal They expect more cancellations and delays in the coming days.

Air chaos in America It started last Thursday with the arrival of the storm20% of operations were canceled on Christmas Eve, as thousands tried to reunite with their families.

The storm’s impact is almost unprecedented, with frigid temperatures stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande (also known as the Rio Grande) on the Mexican border.

More than 200 million Americans, about 60% of the population, are experiencing some form of winter weather warning.

Hurricane-force winds and heavy snow from Elliott affected power grids in several states, knocking out power to nearly 1.7 million homes and businesses at the storm’s peak, though nearly all power has now been restored.

however, About 200,000 customers were without power this Tuesday A new front is affecting the West Coast, over the states of Oregon, Washington and California.

According to local media, the storm killed more than 50 people from the cold and accidents, most of them in the Buffalo area in northwestern New York state, where the President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced Emergency.

New York Gov. Cathy Hochul said Tuesday that several highways in the worst-hit area had reopened, as had border crossings with Canada.

The work of opening the rest of the roads is ongoing in Erie County, where Buffalo is located, which has recorded 28 of the 50 deaths nationwide. The Bodies were found in vehicles, houses and streets.

This cold city on the border of Canada hasn’t experienced such a harsh winter in decades. Buffalo has been completely devastated by snow and its airport, which serves the famous Niagara Falls, is closed.

“We’re riding out the storm as major highways reopen today in Western New York,” the governor said before warning that this “doesn’t mean we can relax our safety.”

For his part, Marc Poloncarz, Erie’s top political official, said many people who had taken refuge in shelters were already returning to their homes, and assured that there was no shortage of products in stores.

Biden last night ordered the federal administration to coordinate the necessary actions “To alleviate the suffering and distress” caused by the storm in New York.

The president appeared last week to warn Americans to take the storm “very seriously” and follow the recommendations of officials.

These holidays were the coldest in the last 40 years for the eastern part of the country, including Florida.called the “sunlight stage”.

New York City experienced a temperature of 10.5 degrees Celsius below zero on Christmas Day, a temperature not seen since 1872. The US capital, Washington, was 10 °C below zero, the coldest Christmas since 1983, while thermometers in Tampa, Florida, plunged below zero degrees, not since 1966.

With information from EFE

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