From VOA:
“Millions Hunker Down As Storm
Hits Eastern US”
(A visitor walks through the
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial as a winter storm blows through the Washington
area, Jan. 16, 2022.)
Millions of Americans hunkered
down as a major winter storm hit the eastern United States with heavy snow and
ice knocking power out for an estimated 130,000 customers as of early Monday. The
National Weather Service (NWS) said the storm was bringing a miserable combination
of heavy snow, freezing rain and high winds, impacting the southeast and
coastal mid-Atlantic before moving up to New England and southern Canada. A
swath from the upper Ohio Valley north to the lower Great Lakes region could
expect more than 30 centimeters of snow Monday, it warned.
In all, more than 80 million
people fell under the winter weather alerts, US media reported. About 235,000
were without power Sunday but by early Monday that had fallen to around 130,000
along the east coast and Kentucky as supplies were restored, according to the
website PowerOutage.US. The storm spawned damaging tornadoes in Florida and
flooding in coastal areas, while in the Carolinas and up through the
Appalachians icy conditions and blustery winds raised concerns. Transport was
seriously disrupted, with thousands of flights canceled, and a portion of busy
interstate highway I-95 closed in North Carolina. More than 3,000 flights
within, into or out of the United States were canceled Sunday. Charlotte
Douglas International Airport in North Carolina was the worst-affected with 95
percent of its flights grounded, according to the FlightAware website. A
further 1,200 flights had been canceled early Monday.
State of emergency Drivers
were warned of hazardous road conditions and major travel headaches from
Arkansas in the south all the way up to Maine, on the Canadian border. Georgia
Governor Brian Kemp had declared a state of emergency on Friday, and snowplows
were at work before noon to clear the roads. Virginia and North Carolina
also declared states of emergency. Virginia State Police said on Twitter
they had responded to almost 1,000 crashes and disabled vehicles on Sunday.
"Mostly vehicle damage. No reported traffic deaths," the force said.
A "multi-vehicle backup," along with minor crashes, had earlier
stopped traffic on a major interstate in the southern part of the state. North
Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on Twitter that up to a foot of snow had
fallen in some areas by midday, and that "significant icing is causing
trouble in the Central part of the state" as he reminded people to stay
inside and avoid travel if possible. Also in North Carolina, students
were shaken up after the storm caused the roof of a college residence hall to
collapse, according to a local ABC news station, though no one was hurt. "Very
scary," Brevard College sophomore Melody Ferguson told the station.
"I'm still shaking to this moment." The NWS even reported some
snow flurries in Pensacola, Florida, while usually mild Atlanta, Georgia also
saw snow. The storm is expected to cause some coastal flooding, and the
NWS warned that winds could near hurricane force on the Atlantic coast.
The northeastern United States
already experienced snow chaos earlier this month. When a storm blanketed the
northeast, hundreds of motorists were stuck for more than 24 hours on a major
highway linking to the capital Washington.
^ We are getting strong wind and
heavy snow right now up here. ^
https://www.voanews.com/a/millions-hunker-down-as-storm-hits-eastern-us-/6399800.html
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.