US hopes for relief from ‘blizzard of the century’ as cities still grapple with disruption

Residents of the state of New York began to remove thick layers of ice this Tuesday (27), after the most severe cold wave in decades in the United States left at least 49 dead, according to the AFP agency. More snow is expected, but the forecast is that the weather will be milder in the coming days – as the damage caused becomes clearer.

“Temperatures should moderate across the Midwest and East over the next few days,” the National Weather Service (NWS) said in its latest report released on Tuesday. The institute, however, added that “locally dangerous travel conditions” persist.

“On Thursday, the high will be 46 F (8°C). On Saturday it will be 54 (12°C),” said Bob Oravec, who works at the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Friday remained cool, with a high of 28 F (-2°C) and a low of 20 F (-6°C), Oravec said.

At the worst of the storm, it was impossible to tell if it was snowing or if the ice had built up, says Jim Nowak, who began work on the removal on Tuesday. “When everything finally calmed down, I saw that we had a lot of work to do,” he said.

Kathy Hochul, governor of the state of New York, where 28 of the victims died, called the storm the “blizzard of the century” and likened it to a war zone. Buffalo, a city 600 km from New York, was one of the hardest hit.

“We’re recovering from the worst storm I’ve ever seen,” said Mark Poloncarz of the Erie County Regional Administration, where Buffalo is located.

The county even issued a warning to residents about the consequences of excessive effort in removing heavy and wet snow, noting that the work can cause back injuries and heart attacks.

Electric company workers were restoring power, and according to Poloncarz, about 4,500 homes remained without electricity.

A driving ban remains in effect in Buffalo. During a press conference on Tuesday, Poloncarz urged residents in the area to stay indoors. According to him, many people were driving around the city “just looking at the snow”.

The county is working with the help of 100 members of the state’s National Guard and New York City police to control traffic, ask residents to return to their homes and block drivers arriving from other areas.

Buffalo residents tried to help unblock back streets with jeeps and pickup trucks on Tuesday. People walked along these paths to try to resupply in markets that were starting to open.

Authorities described difficult conditions, especially in Buffalo, with power outages lasting hours and emergency crews moving from “vehicle to vehicle” in search of survivors.

According to The New York Times, among the victims were medical professionals trying to get home for Christmas; a soon-to-be father out to buy milk; and another man, found buried under a snowbank, who died on his 56th birthday.

According to the National Weather Service, the conditions for winter storms and the bomb cyclone that dropped temperatures from the east coast in New York to the Mexico border in Texas in the east were created in the region. of the Great Lakes, near Canada. There, frigid Arctic air meets warm masses from the east. This year, however, the phenomenon gained above-average intensity – something that, according to analysts, is also due to the climate crisis.