There are at least 39 dead in the Erie County area of New York. Snow plowing is doing a lot of work right now.
According to US authorities, at least 61 people have died nationwide in the storm that raged on Christmas. Thirty-nine of the victims are from Erie County, which also includes the city of Buffalo in western New York state.
– It is heartbreaking to hear that people have frozen to death. We have tried to help and prevent this from happening as best we can, says a snow plower in Erie County Jerry Beltran.
In the state of Ohio, nine people died in car accidents during the storm. In addition, there are victims of the storm in a few other states.
As the temperature rises, officials have been concerned about flooding from melting snow and ice, but it appears that flooding is not becoming significant.
“Fortunately, the flooding appears to be minimal,” said an Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz.
In addition, electricity has been restored to all residents of the county.
Residents worried about flooding
Snow masses full of carbon monoxide are now being plowed in Erie County. During the storm, 1.4 meters of snow fell in the area. Many houses and cars are still covered and blocked by snow.
– We have been plowing snow for five days. This has been really hard. The storm was crazy, but now the snow is wetter and much harder to plow, Beltrain says.
Local residents have complained about the slowness of snow plowing. Many are now worried that when the snow melts, it will cause floods and moisture damage to people’s homes.
A Buffalo native Sean Collier accuses the city of being poorly prepared for winter storms. He has grabbed the handle of the snow shovel himself.
– Citizens and neighbors are happy to help each other with shoveling, but the city also has to do its part, says Collier.
Southwest Airlines operations are slowly returning to normal
Along with Buffalo and Ohio, the storm caused cooler-than-expected temperatures in the states of Texas and Florida, which led to chaos at airports and tens of thousands of flights were delayed or canceled.
The worst affected by the storm is Southwest Airlines, which has had to cancel 15,000 flights due to the storm. The company said that the problems were partly due to its outdated scheduling software.
Southwest Airlines said that its operations will slowly return to normal today, Friday. During Thursday, Southwest Airlines had canceled more than 2,350 flights, according to the Flightaware website.
Sources: AFP, Reuters