US freezer leaves more than 800,000 without power, thousands of flights canceled by Health & Fitness Journal

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©Health & Fitness Journal. A view of a snow-covered car after a heavy snowfall in Regent, North Dakota, U.S., December 23, 2022, in this social media image. Blake Rafferty/Twitter@BlakeRafferty1/via REUTERS 2/2

By Rich McKay

(Health & Fitness Journal) – An Arctic blast that swept through much of the United States on Saturday left more than 800,000 without power, at least 16 dead from weather-related car accidents and thousands from flight cancellations.

Plunging temperatures were expected to bring the coldest Christmas Eve on record, and power systems across the country have been strained by rising heat demands and storm-related damage to transmission lines.

The latest outage numbers are a sharp drop from the 1.8 million US homes and businesses that were without power early Saturday morning, according to tracking site Poweroutage.us.

Many electric companies continued to urge their customers to conserve energy by not operating large appliances and turning off unneeded lights.

Duke Energy (NYSE:) has initiated rolling power outages in North and South Carolina at 15- to 30-minute intervals until additional power is available, the company told customers.

“Because extreme temperatures are causing unusually high energy demands in the Carolinas, we have begun short, temporary power outages,” the company said on Twitter. “These emergency outages are necessary to protect the power grid from longer and more widespread outages.”

Disruptions have turned daily routines and vacation plans upside down for millions of Americans during one of the busiest travel times of the year.

More than 2,500 U.S. flights were canceled Saturday, with more than 5,700 delays overall, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. More than 5,000 flights were canceled on Friday, according to FlightAware.

The American Automobile Association had estimated that 112.7 million people would drive 50 miles (80 km) or more from home between December 23 and January 2. But the blustery weather heading into the weekend likely meant many people were staying home.

According to media reports, at least 16 people have been killed and hundreds stranded on icy and snow-covered roads in weather-related car accidents across the country.

In Erie County, New York, about 500 motorists were stranded in their vehicles from Friday night through Saturday morning and the National Guard was called to help with rescue efforts, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz told media. At least one person was found dead in a car, he said.

“There’s no room for anyone, everything is closed so just stay home,” he told MSNBC.

Two motorists were killed and dozens more injured in a 50-vehicle pileup that shut down the Ohio Turnpike in both directions during a snowstorm near Toledo, forcing an evacuation by bus of stranded motorists to keep them from freezing, officials said.

Three deaths were reported in Kentucky, where Gov. Andy Beshear on Saturday warned residents: “Stay home, stay safe, stay alive.”

“I know it’s really hard because it’s Christmas Eve. But we have dozens and dozens of accidents,” he said in an online briefing. “It’s just not safe.”

Blizzard conditions remained Saturday for Buffalo, New York, and the surrounding county on the edge of Lake Erie in far western New York, where 4 to 6 feet of snow will fall through Sunday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

The city imposed a driving ban Friday that remained in effect Saturday, and all three border crossing bridges in the Buffalo area were closed to inbound traffic from Canada.

Temperatures were expected to peak in Pittsburgh on Saturday at just 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius), beating the previous coldest-ever Christmas Eve high of 13 degrees Fahrenheit, which was set in 1983, the NWS said.

Cities in Georgia and South Carolina — Athens and Charleston — were also forecast to record their coldest daily highs on Christmas Eve, and Washington, DC was forecast for the coldest December 24th since 1989.

The spate of Christmas temperature records was predicted as deep frosts exacerbated by dangerous wind showers blanketed much of the nation’s eastern two-thirds.

“The cold snap will continue into Christmas,” said forecaster Ashton Robinson Cook of the NWS Weather Prediction Center.

Minneapolis was the coldest place in America on Saturday at minus 6 degrees Fahrenheit. On Christmas morning, the coldest place will be Fargo, North Dakota, at minus 20, Cook said.

It will start to weaken west-to-east across America, with plateaus and the central US returning to normal by Tuesday, but it won’t warm up on the east coast until Thursday or Friday, he said.

“It’s cold right now,” he said.

The severe weather prompted authorities across the country to open warm centers at libraries and police stations while scrambling to expand temporary shelters for the homeless. The challenge has been compounded by an influx of migrants that have crossed the US southern border in the thousands in recent weeks.

The National Weather Service said its map of existing or upcoming meteorological hazards “displays one of the most comprehensive winter weather warnings and advisories ever.”