 |
A deadly blast of arctic air shattered
decades-old temperature records as it enveloped the eastern United
States on Tuesday, snarling air, road and rail travel, driving energy
prices higher and overwhelming shelters for homeless people.
|
At least nine deaths have been reported across the country connected
with the polar air mass that swept over North America during the past
few days. Authorities have put about half of the United States under a
wind chill warning or cold weather advisory.Temperatures were
expected to be 25 degrees to 35 degrees Fahrenheit (14 to 19 degrees
Celsius) below normal from the Midwest to the Southeast, the National
Weather Service said.
PJM Interconnection, the agency that
oversees the electric grid supplying the mid-Atlantic and parts of the
Midwest, said electricity suppliers were struggling to keep up with
surging demand as the cold forced some power plants to shut.
"This
particular cold is far-reaching, and most of our neighbors are
experiencing the extreme conditions we are," said Michael Kormos,
executive vice president for operations at PJM Interconnection.
Oil refiners were also hit, with Marathon Petroleum Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp both experiencing cold-related outages.
In
Oklahoma, a depleted supply of propane due to extreme weather led
Governor Mary Fallin to declare a state of emergency, waiving licensing
requirements for out-of-state transportation companies to allow them to
bring in propane.
Homeless shelters and public buildings took in people who were freezing outside.
Daniel
Dashner, a 33-year-old homeless man who typically sleeps under a bridge
on Milwaukee's south side, said he opted to seek a spot at a shelter on
Monday night.
"Usually if I have four or five blankets, I can
stay pretty warm, but when that wind is blowing, I don't care how many
blankets I have, the wind blows right through me," he said, as
temperatures dropped to minus 6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 21 degrees
Celsius).
The extreme cold won't last much longer, according to
AccuWeather.com. The frigid air and "polar vortex" that affected about
240 million people in the United States and southern Canada will depart
during the second half of this week, and a far-reaching January thaw
will begin, according to AccuWeather.com.
COLD'S BROAD REACH
Major
U.S. cities were in the grip of temperatures well below freezing, with
Chicago seeing 2 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 17 C), Detroit 0 F (minus 18
C), Pittsburgh 5 F (minus 15 C), Washington 19 (minus 7 C) and Boston 15
F (minus 9 C).
New York's Central Park recorded the lowest
temperature for the date, 4 Fahrenheit (minus 16 C), rising to 9 F
(minus 13 C) on Tuesday afternoon with wind chills making it feel much
colder, meteorologists said.
At New York's Bowery Mission homeless
shelter, the 80-bed dormitory was full on Monday night and 179 other
people slept in the chapel and cafeteria, officials said.
Schools
in Minneapolis and Chicago were closed for a second day on Tuesday,
although Chicago plans to reopen schools on Wednesday. Cleveland
remained below freezing after temperatures fell to minus 11 F (minus 24
C) on Monday, breaking a 130-year-old record.
Impassable snow and
ice halted three Chicago-bound Amtrak trains on Monday, stranding more
than 500 passengers overnight in northwestern Illinois.
In the
normally mild south, Atlanta recorded its coldest weather on this date
in 44 years, as the temperature dropped to 6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus
14 degrees Celsius), while temperatures in northern Florida also briefly
dropped below freezing, though the state's citrus crop was unharmed,
according to a major growers' group.
Among the deaths reported was
a 51-year-old homeless man in Columbus, Georgia, whose body was found
in an empty lot after spending the night outdoors.
Two men died in
Westerport, Massachusetts, while duck hunting on Tuesday when their
boat capsized, dropping them into a frigid river, officials said. A
third man was rescued.
A large avalanche in backcountry outside
the Colorado ski resort area of Vail killed one person on Tuesday and
caught up three others who survived and were being rescued, officials
said. Avalanche danger in the area was rated as "considerable" due to
high winds and recent heavy snows, said Spencer Logan, forecaster with
the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Four cold and
storm-related deaths were reported around Chicago and an elderly woman
was found dead outside her Indianapolis home early Monday.
AIRLINES STRUGGLE
The
cold snap could cost the US economy up to $5 billion, when lost
productivity and lost retail sales are accounted for, estimated Evan
Gold, senior vice president at Planalytics, which tracks weather for
businesses. He said about 200 million people in major cities might face
"bill shock" for heating.
The deep freeze disrupted commutes on
Tuesday, with icy or closed roads and flight delays. Some 2,380 U.S.
flights were canceled and 2,912 delayed, according to FlightAware.com,
which tracks airline activity. Airlines scrambled to catch up a day
after the cold froze fuel supplies, leading to flight cancellations,
many at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
Hardest hit were
travelers who had booked trips on JetBlue Airways Corp, which on Monday
halted its flights at New York's three major airports and Boston Logan
International Airport overnight. Flights had resumed by midday on
Tuesday.
Tuesday proved too cold even for some polar bears. At
Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, a 14-year-old female polar bear named Anana
mostly remained in her indoor enclosure, where temperatures are 40 F (4
C), said zoo spokeswoman Sharon Dewar.
She said that in their
native environment, polar bears build up a layer of fat to help them
through the Arctic winter of long periods of sub-zero temperatures. In
Chicago, however, she said "we don't create that fat layer in zoo
animals because that would normally not be something they would be
comfortable with."
