At the very least 17 people died, greater than 700,000 homes were without power and 1000’s of airline passengers were stranded across the country on Saturday as a robust winter storm created a nightmare before Christmas.
A record-breaking cold swept over america with white weather conditions in some areas and vicious winds in others – while a “bomb cyclone” hit parts of the country.
A “bomb cyclone” forms when atmospheric pressure drops rapidly during a severe thunderstorm.
Pittsburgh, Charleston, SC and Washington, DC were all expected to hit record lows on Christmas Eve.
Fargo, North Carolina was predicted to be the coldest place within the country on Christmas Day.
The death toll from the powerful storm – which stretched from the Great Lakes to the Mexican border – included one man within the Big Apple and three in northern Erie County, where heavily hit Buffalo was expected to drop as much as 4 feet of snow by Monday.
“What’s happening in Buffalo is life threatening,” Governor Kathy Hochul said Saturday, noting that almost every fire truck in town was stuck within the snow.
![This was accompanied by white conditions in some areas and fierce winds in others - while](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/winter-weather-221224-25.jpg?w=1024)
In Ohio, 4 motorists were killed and many others injured in a 50-vehicle collision during a blizzard near Toledo. In neighboring Kentucky, three more weather-related deaths have been confirmed – two from automobile accidents and one homeless one that died from exposure.
An 82-year-old woman from Lansing, Michigan, died after being found curled up within the snow outside her residential community on Friday morning, local police said.
The large amount of snow has raised fears of flooding in lots of states, including North Dakota and Nevada.
Power grids across the country were strained and the Tennessee Valley Authority, which supplies 10 million people in parts of seven states, speaking on Friday delivered more energy than ever in its 89-year history.
Residents in 13 states served by Pennsylvania-based PJM Interconnection have been asked to refrain from unnecessary electricity consumption with possible power outages.
Airlines hit with 2,800 canceled flights within the US and one other 6,600 delayed on Saturday, in line with flight tracking service FlightAware.
A person who got stuck on the airport on Saturday John F. Kennedy on his way from Detroit to Istanbul, called it “the worst travel experience of my life.”
“We didn’t get hotel accommodation, nothing,” said 27-year-old Amal Hammoud. “We only got here here to miss our second flight although we were three hours early.”
A delayed United Airlines flight to Newark touched down early on Christmas Eve and passengers waited not less than one other hour on the tarmac when the overhead compartment began to leak.
![The car is left on the side of the road in the middle of a winter storm.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/winter-weather-221224-27-1.jpg?w=1024)
At Kennedy Airport on Saturday, frustrated traveler Amy Sarr, 37, who works in media and events, attempted to return home to see her family in Senegal. She said she flew into Latest York from Washington on Friday and ran for a connecting flight to Senegal only to sit down on the plane for 4 hours before learning she couldn’t take off.
“After all we were hungry and needed something to eat… and someone passed out. Literally, she said.
After sleeping within the airport, she hoped to catch one other flight on Saturday night. “I already miss half of Christmas, which is gloomy. I just miss my kids, my parents and just the heat of Christmas,” she said.
A photographer tries to get to Chicago from Detroit he tweeted about his frustrations.
“So @Delta you literally delayed our flight 4 hours only to have it cancelled. And that is my second canceled flight (sic!) to Chicago,” photographer Jeremiah Hunnus wrote after midnight on Christmas Eve, sharing a video of a few dozen stunned fellow passengers. “This shouldn’t be acceptable…. And I’m not okay.
Some tried to profit from it.
“Our flight from Portland has been canceled tomorrow” lamented Rob Glover, a professor of political science on the University of Maine, shares a photograph of a plate of chili cheese fries. “So as a substitute of being taken to the Caribbean, we’re drowning our sorrows in cheese and gravy.”
There was no relief for many who managed to make it south with low temperatures in Florida, which meant the iguanas were liable to “freezing” and falling from the trees.
![Overturned car in Kansas City, Missouri.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/winter-weather-221224-26.jpg?w=1024)
In Texas, the Houston Humane Society rescued 138 frozen bats from the Waugh Street Bridge after they froze to death on Thursday.
“For Christmas to be this cold, it’s historic in some areas, especially within the South,” said FOX forecast center meteorologist Stephen McCloud. “It doesn’t get that cold so early.”
He said the principal storm system is slowly moving further north across Canada, which can proceed to bring snow to the Great Lakes region until Tuesday.
Upstate Latest York, including Buffalo, was expected to get 3 to 2 feet of snow, while Michigan could get 3 to eight inches.
with postal wires