- New York Declares A State Of Emergency To Deal With The Icy Storm That Hits The US

A woman tries to clean a street in Denver, Colorado.

The cyclonic bomb freezes and paralyzes the US in its coldest Christmas in history

The historic storm Elliot plunged the United States into freezing weather in the middle of the Christmas season, making Christmas Eve bitter for thousands of people due to the cancellation of flights, the collapse of roads, and power outages in various parts of the country.

The storm, a bomb cyclonic caused by an arctic air front, has been bringing freezing temperatures, heavy snow, strong winds, and rain since Thursday from Canada to Texas.

If the forecasts come true, several cities on the east coast and in Florida could experience the coldest Christmases since records have been kept.

At least 200 million people in the United States, 60% of the population, have been under some weather alert, according to the national weather service, the National Weather Service (NWS).

The last part of this organization, from 6:00 p.m., indicates that 3.9 million people remain on alert for a winter storm this Saturday, in the midwest, northeast, and northwest of the country.

Elliot's passage has left thousands of people trying to reunite with their families without Christmas Eve, since some 4,300 flights have been canceled this Saturday, according to data from the Flight Aware portal.

These are in addition to the nearly 6,000 cancellations that occurred on Thursday, causing chaos and despair at several airports in the United States. The airports most affected by cancellations and delays are of Detroit (Michigan), Atlanta (Georgia), Minneapolis (Minnesota), and Seattle (Washington state). In addition, those in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Buffalo (New York) are closed.

Even courier companies like FedEx or UPS have announced delays in the delivery of gifts as a result of the storm.

The storm has also hit the country's electrical infrastructure, where 1.4 million people remain without power in their homes, mainly in the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Maine, according to the Power Outage tracker.

The Duke Energy company asked its customers in Ohio and Kentucky this Saturday to reduce the use of non-essential electrical appliances until tomorrow due to the high demand for electricity that it is experiencing due to low temperatures.

At least 15 people have died due to the storm, according to local media counts, four of them in a multi-car crash on a snow-covered Ohio highway.

The weather service warned on Saturday that road travel in parts of the Midwest and Northeast was "extremely dangerous or even impossible," and warned that "icy winds pose a life-threatening danger to stranded travelers."

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, appeared publicly on Thursday to warn Americans to take the storm "extremely seriously" and to follow the recommendations of the authorities.

At least 12 states in the country have declared a state of emergency due to the freezing cold, such as Colorado, Georgia, and New York.

"The low temperatures have left dangerous conditions on the roads today. Stay off the roads," New York Governor Kathy Hochul asked this Saturday on social networks.

Hundreds of people have been trapped on the roads by the snow in the city of Buffalo, on the border with Canada. "It's been a very bad night for our community," Erie County official Marc Poloncarz told reporters.

On Friday, members of the US House of Representatives rushed to vote on budgets for the fiscal year 2023 in fear of being stuck on Christmas Eve in Washington.

The US capital experiences a temperature of 13 °C below zero this Saturday. The city is expected to have the coldest Christmas since 1989.