New York, Dec. 25. Winter Storm Elliot, which sweeps across the United States from west to east, has claimed seven lives in northwest New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday.
In a news conference, the governor said there are still 39,000 homes without power in the state, 27,000 of them in Erie County, where the deaths occurred, adding that people are still trapped in homes and vehicles.
Hochul pointed out that up to 75 centimeters of snow had fallen in some places and warned that although the blizzard, which is accompanied by an intense blizzard that makes visibility difficult, is already easing, the situation continues to be “dangerous” and the weather “excessively” cold.
“We are still facing freezing weather across the state. These low temperatures are life threatening, so New Yorkers should stay indoors today,” the governor insisted.
Authorities have banned travel in six northwestern counties of the state (Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Lawrence), where hundreds of people have been rescued by emergency services.
Yesterday, Hochul ordered more emergency personnel from various agencies, including 200 National Guard members and equipment, to help New Yorkers in the Erie County capital of Buffalo.
The storm, which claimed about 20 lives across the United States, began to subside on Sunday, though it still keeps the country mired in freezing temperatures and some disruption at airports and highways.
The national weather service, the National Weather Service (NWS), predicts this Christmas Sunday that the Arctic front is “creeping eastward and weakening”, leaving still cold temperatures and some snowfall.
According to the NWS report at 13:30 GMT, only 190,000 people are already on alert for a snowstorm, concentrated in upstate New York. On the eve there were 4 million inhabitants. EFE extension
jfu/rt
