On Christmas, a deadly blizzard grips the US and Canada

Intense snowfall and bitter cold overtook areas of the east coast of the country on Christmas Day, putting millions of Americans in peril and causing at least 24 weather-related deaths.

In Buffalo, western New York, where a snowstorm trapped the city and prevented emergency services from accessing high-impact regions, a crisis scenario was developing on Sunday.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a native of Buffalo, called the storm there “a crisis of epic size” and “the worst of the worst.” There, 2.4 m (8 ft) snow drifts against front doors and power outages in subfreezing temperatures have produced life-threatening conditions.

Christmas morning saw more than 200,000 people without power across multiple eastern states, and many more had their travel plans for the holiday canceled despite hints that the five-day storm with blizzard conditions and fierce winds was abating.

The weekend’s extreme weather caused thousands of flights to be canceled, stranded holiday travelers, and trapped residents in ice and snow-covered homes. Wind chill temperatures fell below freezing in all 48 contiguous US states.

Eight states reported the twenty weather-related fatalities, although some US media outlets reported as many as thirty, including four persons in Colorado who most certainly perished from exposure and at least seven in western New York.

In Canada, thousands of flights were canceled in major cities, hundreds of thousands of people lost electricity in Ontario and Quebec, and Toronto to Ottawa passenger rail service was suspended.