BUFFALO.-Dangerously cold winds continued to affect much of the Rockies, the Great Plains and the north-central United States, with a wind chill of -34.4 degrees Celsius (-30 degrees Fahrenheit) in many areas of the central United States.
More than 85,000 homes and businesses were without power early Tuesday, most in Oregon, after widespread blackouts that began Saturday. Portland General Electric warned that the threat of freezing rain on Tuesday could delay efforts to restore service. Transport officials urged the population to avoid travel, as dangerous conditions were expected on the roads due to ice, which could also cause trees and power lines to fall.
Classes were canceled Tuesday in Portland and other big cities such as Chicago — home to the country’s fourth-largest public school district — Denver, Dallas and Fort Worth.
The storms and low temperatures affected everything from flights to NFL playoff games to the Republican primary caucuses in Iowa, and caused several deaths across the country.
At least four people died in the Portland area, two of them from possible hypothermia. Another man died when a tree fell on his house and a woman died in a fire that started in a kitchen after a tree fell on a mobile home.
In Wisconsin, the deaths of three homeless people in the Milwaukee area were being investigated, probably due to hypothermia, according to authorities.
Freezing rain and hail were expected to continue in parts of the Southeast into Tuesday morning. Winter storm warnings were in place for Lawrence, Limestone and Madison counties in Alabama and Franklin County in Tennessee, as well as southeastern Arkansas, northeastern Louisiana and much of northern, central and southwestern Mississippi.
Temperatures dropped to -12.2 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) Monday night in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and Jackson, Tennessee.
Frigid temperatures in the Northeast didn’t stop fans from coming out to cheer on the Buffalo Bills at a snow-covered Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The Bills defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday in an AFC wild-card playoff game, postponed 27 1/2 hours because of a storm that left more than 2 feet (51 centimeters) of snow in the region.
And voters gave former President Donald Trump a victory on Monday on the first night of the primary, in an Iowa caucus that broke its record cold. Temperatures dropped to -19.4 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit) in Des Moines, with a much lower wind chill.
Flight travelers experienced delays and cancellations. Air traffic tracking service FlightAware recorded 2,900 cancellations on Monday to or from the United States.
Temperatures were expected to moderate by midweek, although a new cold wave would affect the south, from the northern part of the Great Plains and the central north until reaching the southeast of the country at the end of the week.
Source: With information from AP
