East and West Coasts brace for new round of snow and ice as deadly storm hits US

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PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — Storms that have turned roads into icy death traps have killed people from across Oregon and beyond. tennessee And even a plane sliding off a taxiway on Friday was expected to bring another round of weather turbulence on both coasts.

New York City – which just saw its first snowfall in more than two years on Tuesday – was in the headlines as the National Weather Service warned of a possible 3 to 5 inches (7.6 to 12.7 centimeters) of snowfall in the state by Friday. and parts of New Jersey and pennsylvania,

An American Airlines plane slid off an icy taxiway in Rochester on Thursday. New YorkAfter the flight from Philadelphia. There is no report of anyone being injured.

On the West Coast, Oregon’s governor declared a statewide emergency Thursday night after several counties requested assistance “as they enter the sixth day of severe weather impacts from freezing rain.”

Thousands of residents have been without power in parts of Oregon’s Willamette Valley since Saturday after an ice storm caused widespread damage.

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“We lost power on Saturday, and we were told yesterday it would take more than two weeks to get it back on,” said Jamie Kenworthy, a real estate broker in Jasper in Lane County.

“We have a generator that we got last year, and right now it’s running an oil plug-in heater,” she said. “We also have a natural gas stove, and I’m running two burners to try.” “Help heat the house.”

Over the past two weeks, storms have brought rain, snow, wind and freezing temperatures to much of the US, disrupting traffic and air travel and killing at least 45 people.

which involved three people got electrocuted on wednesday Caused by a downed power line in Portland, Oregon. A man trying to get out of a parked car covered with lines with a child in his lap has died after slipping on an icy road and hitting a power line. The child survived.

His pregnant 21-year-old girlfriend and her 15-year-old brother died while trying to help. Their father, Ronald Briggs, told KGW-TV that he watched helplessly as they died.

“I have six children. I lost two of them in the same day,” he said.

Crews have made steady progress in restoring power to thousands of customers after a series of storms swept through Oregon, but more than 79,000 people were still without power as of Thursday night, according to the website poweroutage.us.

Portland Public Schools canceled classes for the fourth consecutive day and state offices in Portland were also ordered closed Friday amid concerns about icy roads and water damage to buildings.

The frigid weather continues across the South, where a new layer of snow blanketed parts of Tennessee on Thursday — part of a broader cold outbreak across the country.

Officials have blamed at least 14 deaths in Tennessee on the system, which dumped more than 9 inches (22.8 centimeters) of snow since Sunday in parts of Nashville, a city that rarely gets such snow accumulations. . Temperatures dropped below freezing (minus 17.7 Celsius) in parts of the state, creating the largest power demand ever in the seven states served by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The dead included a box truck driver who slid into a tractor-trailer on an interstate, a man who fell from a skylight while cleaning a roof, and a woman who died of hypothermia after being found unconscious in her home.

On Thursday, Will Compton of Open Table Nashville, a nonprofit that helps the homeless, stopped his SUV outside the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum to hand out warm hats, blankets, protein drinks and socks because of the freezing rain.

“Those who are poor and those who are homeless are being hit the hardest,” Compton said.

Aaron Robison, 62, is living in one of the city’s warming centers and said the cold didn’t bother him when he was younger. But now that she has arthritis in her hip and has to rely on two canes, she needed to get out of the cold.

“Thank God for helping people on the streets. It’s a blessing,” he said.

In mississippiIn the capital city, an estimated 12,000 customers were suffering low water pressure Thursday, another blow to Jackson’s long-troubled water system.

Jackson Water officials said the pipe burst accelerated Wednesday when frozen ground began to thaw and expand, putting pressure on buried pipes. Jackson Water Manager Ted Henifin said people filled their bathtubs after what he called an “intentional misinformation campaign” on social media about the city’s water supply, causing pressure in the water system to increase.

Since the extreme cold weather began last week, more than 60 Oil spills and other environmental incidents has been reported in North DakotaThe Bakken oil field, where regulators say wind chills of up to minus 70 degrees (minus 56.6 C) put pressure on workers and equipment, making accidents more likely.

In Washington state, five people in just four days last week in Seattle — most of whom were believed to be homeless — died from exposure to the cold as temperatures dropped well below zero, the medical examiner’s office said. .

In kansasAuthorities were investigating the death of an 18-year-old man whose body was found Wednesday in a ditch a few blocks from where his vehicle had become stuck in the snow.

Associated Press reporters Jonathan Mattis and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville and Adrian Saenz in Memphis contributed.

Copyright 2024 The associated Press, All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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