‘Bomb cyclone’ in North America wreaks havoc causing power outages and travel chaos

Mission, Kansas: Tens of millions of Americans endured bone-chilling temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages and cancelled holiday gatherings from a winter storm that forecasters said was nearly unprecedented in its scope, exposing about 60 per cent of the US population to some sort of winter weather advisory or warning.

More than 200 million people were under an advisory or warning on Friday (local time), the National Weather Service said. The weather service’s map “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” forecasters said.

A person walks through blowing snow during a snowstorm in Toronto, Canada. Credit:AP

Power outages have left about 1.4 million homes and businesses in the dark, according to the website PowerOutage, which tracks utility reports. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, ended its rolling blackouts Friday afternoon but continued to urge homes and businesses to conserve power.

And nearly 5,000 flights within, into or out of the US were cancelled Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, causing more mayhem as travellers try to make it home for the holidays.

“We’ve just got to stay positive,” said Wendell Davis, who plays basketball with a team in France and was waiting at O’Hare in Chicago on Friday after a series of flight cancellations.

The huge storm stretched from border to border. In Canada, WestJet cancelled all flights Friday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, beginning at 9 am as meteorologists in the country warned of a potential once-in-a-decade weather event.

The downtown Chicago skyline is obscured by blowing snow and steam rising from Lake Michigan.Credit:AP

The storm was expected to affect about two-thirds of all Canadians as it moves across Canada’s two most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec, toward Atlantic Canada, said Environment Canada meteorologist Steve Flisfeder in Toronto.

In Ontario, Provincial Police Sergeant Kerry Schmidt said they had received reports of up to 100 vehicles involved in multiple collisions that have closed off a major highway.

And in Mexico, migrants waited near the US border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a US Supreme Court decision on whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum.

Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

Santa Dale, no last name given, walks through a snow covered parking lot as he arrives at a mall iN Iowa. Credit:AP

Multiple US highways were closed and crashes claimed at least five lives, officials said. At least one person died in a massive pileup involving at least 50 vehicles on the Ohio Turnpike. A driver was killed Thursday after skidding into a creek, and three others died Wednesday in separate crashes on icy northern Kansas roads.

Michigan also faced a deluge of crashes, including one involving nine semitrailers.

Activists also were rushing to get homeless people out of the cold. Nearly 170 adults and children were keeping warm early Friday in Detroit at a shelter and a warming centre that are designed to hold 100 people.

“This is a lot of extra people” but it wasn’t an option to turn anyone away, said Faith Fowler, the executive director of Cass Community Social Services, which runs both facilities.

In Chicago, Andy Robledo planned to spend the day organising efforts to check on people without housing through his nonprofit, Feeding People Through Plants. Robledo and volunteers build tents modelled on ice-fishing tents, including a plywood subfloor.

“It’s not a house, it’s not an apartment, it’s not a hotel room. But it’s a huge step up from what they had before,” Robledo said.

In Portland, Oregon, nearly 800 people slept at five emergency shelters on Thursday night, as homeless outreach teams fanned out to distribute cold-weather survival gear.

DoorDash and Uber Eats suspended delivery service in some states, and bus service was disrupted in places like Seattle.

The power ceased at Jaime Sheehan’s Maryland bakery for about 90 minutes Friday, shutting off the convection oven and stilling the mixer she needed to make buttercream.

Cars sit by the road with a blizzard warning in place in Michigan. Credit:AP

“Thankfully, all of the orders that were going out today already finished yesterday,” she said a few moments before the power returned.

At about the same time, Corey Newcomb and his family were entering their sixth hour without power at their home in the small town of Phenix, Virginia.

“We are coping and that’s about it,” Newcomb said in a Facebook message.

Garrett Fuller, left, helps friend Robin Jacobs get up after slipping to the icy ground on Capitol Hill, Seattle.Credit:AP

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said she was deploying the National Guard to haul timber to the Oglala Sioux and Rosebud Sioux tribes and help with snow removal.

“We have families that are way out there that we haven’t heard from in two weeks,” Wayne Boyd, chief of staff to the Rosebud Sioux president, said.

Fearing that some are running out of food, the tribe was hoping to get a helicopter on Saturday to check on the stranded.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe, meanwhile, was using snowmobiles to reach members who live at the end of miles-long dirt roads.

Kansas City fire department rescue workers work to recover a minivan that went into a creek.Credit:AP

“It’s been one heck of a fight so far,” said tribal President Frank Star Comes Out.

On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Harlie Young was huddled with five children and her 58-year-old father around a wood stove as 3.6 metres of snow drifts blocked the house.

“We’re just trying to look on the bright side that they’re still coming and they didn’t forget us,” she said Friday, as the temperature was -21C with a wind chill of minus 29C.

The weather service is forecasting the coldest Christmas in more than two decades in Philadelphia, where school officials shifted classes online Friday.

A cyclist navigates through the snow in downtown Vancouver. Credit:AP

Atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the tallest peak in the Northeast, the wind topped 241 km/h.

In Boston, rain combined with a high tide sent waves over the seawall at Long Wharf and flooded some downtown streets. It was so bad in Vermont that Amtrak cancelled services for the day, and nonessential state offices were closing early.

“I’m hearing from crews who are seeing grown trees ripped out by the roots,” Mari McClure, president of Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, said at a news conference.

Calling it a “kitchen sink storm,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency. In parts of New York City, tidal flooding inundated roads, homes and businesses Friday morning, with police trudging through knee-deep water to pull stranded motorists to safety in Queens.

AP, Reuters

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