Death toll rises to at least 50 as freezing temperatures and heavy snow wallop swaths of U.S.
A massive winter storm that has already killed 50 people in the United States looked set to continue wreaking havoc on Monday, with plummeting temperatures and huge snowdrifts trapping people in their homes and snarling travel across the country.
The full brunt of the storm was felt in parts of western New York, which had become a “war zone,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday, with looting and roads blocked by emergency vehicles.
A “ring of heavy lake-effect snow” in the Buffalo area produced two to three inches of snowfall each hour, with accumulations reaching 6 to 12 inches and up to 1 to 2 feet for Jefferson and northern Lewis counties, the National Weather Service said. in his bulletin at 6:43.
The storm, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the Mexican border, killed at least 50 people Monday morning, according to NBC News. Deaths were reported in 12 states: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
Buffalo police, who confirmed a total of 10 dead in the city, said people died “outside and in cars.” Tolls in the city rose to 14 as of Monday morning, a spokesperson for the city of Buffalo told NBC News.
Blinding blizzards and freezing rain also knocked out power to thousands of residents across New York state, leaving 15,000 people on the Buffalo National Grid without power, Hochul said.
“Recovery may not happen until Tuesday,” she said.
