A large number of victims of the storm "century" In the United States

The storm of the century that hit the United States caused the deaths of dozens of people amid extreme weather factors, accompanied by snow, winds and freezing temperatures. It was reported that the number of victims exceeded 53 dead.

Emergency crews are working to verify casualties from the blizzard that has robbed millions of Americans of Christmas celebrations, especially in snow-covered western New York, where the death toll from bad weather hit 25 on Monday, authorities have described. as a “war with mother nature” in the face of the “storm of the century”.

Several parts of the northeastern United States experienced a series of extreme weather events of snow, wind and freezing temperatures that swept the country for several days, causing massive power outages, flight cancellations and at least 47 deaths.

The storm has caused more than 15,000 flight cancellations in recent days, including about 1,700 on Monday, according to Flightaware.com.

For their part, meteorologists expected that the city of Buffalo, accustomed to bad winter weather, would continue to snow, and that today, Monday, a layer of 14 inches (35 centimeters) thick would be added to the already applied snow. accumulated over several days and led to the paralysis of the city and the collapse of its emergency services, while the weather remained unchanged. The storm has camped in Erie County in western New York, where Buffalo is located, the epicenter of the weather crisis.

“In addition to the 13 deaths confirmed yesterday, the Erie County Health Authority has confirmed 12 more deaths, bringing the county’s total blizzard deaths to 25,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncars said during a press conference. .

Poloncars noted that due to the severe weather, this is “probably the worst storm in our lives and in the city’s history.”

He said the death toll in Erie was likely to exceed that of the 1977 buffalo blizzard that killed about 30 people.

Poloncars has warned residents to stay home as more snow is expected and most of Buffalo’s roads have been declared “impassable”.

He added: “It’s not over yet, we haven’t arrived yet,” explaining that power to Buffalo would not be fully restored until Monday and Buffalo International Airport would be closed until Tuesday.

National Guard personnel and other teams rescued hundreds of people from snow-covered vehicles, but authorities said more were still trapped.

For her part, New York Gov. Katie Hochul expressed shock at what she saw during Sunday’s reconnaissance tour of the city, calling it “a war zone and the sight of vehicles on both sides of the road is shocking.”

She pointed to the threat of more than two meters of snow piled up in homes and the suffering of residents from power outages, adding, “This is a war with Mother Nature.”

And she continued: “Of course, this is the storm of the century .. It is too early to say that it is about to end.”

Due to severe weather over the weekend in 48 US states, temperatures dropped to below zero.

More than 48,000 homes on the east coast were without power on Sunday, according to the website Power-Autage, with 150,000 homes initially reported out of power.

And the US Weather Service expects temperatures to return to normal seasonal levels “by the middle of next week.”

A bus overturned last Saturday in British Columbia, Canada, likely due to icing, killing four people and 53 people being taken to hospital, including two who were in critical condition early Sunday morning.

Hundreds of thousands of people were deprived of electricity in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, a large number of flights were canceled in major cities, and passenger trains between Toronto and Ottawa were suspended.

Source: AFP

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