The death toll in the United States rises to over 50 due to the storm that hit a vast territory , from the Great Lakes on the border with Canada to the southern end of the Rio Grande, on the border between Texas and Mexico.
200,000 people were left without electricity and without heating.
Buffalo and New York State are the hardest hit areas with 30 fatalities, most of them trapped inside their cars. Governor Kathy Hochul had declared a state of emergency before Christmas, speaking of a "war against mother nature that is hitting us with everything she has".
Hundreds of National Guardsmen were deployed to help rescuers and over 500 rescues were carried out over the weekend alone, including that of a woman who was helped to give birth.
" The storm of the century is not over yet ," warned Hochul, who extended the driving ban in Erie County, where Buffalo is located, for another 24 hours.
But the winter " bomb cyclone " also caused devastation in Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas and Colorado . In Florida the thermometer dipped so low that the iguanas froze and fell out of the trees. But the state with the lowest temperature these days was Montana with -45 degrees.
(Unioneonline/ss)
