Falling temperatures, transport disruption: United States is preparing for powerful storm

The American president, Joe Biden, warned, Thursday, his compatriots, of which several tens of millions will move for the holiday season.

Mo12345lemonde with AFP

Thousands of delayed or canceled flights, icy temperatures and strong snowfall: the first effects of a storm as we see “only once by generation” were felt, Thursday, December 22, in a large part of the United States. Authorities alert to the very dangerous conditions of travel, while millions of Americans must switch to roads and at airports for the holiday season.

“Please take this storm extremely seriously,” said President Joe Biden on Thursday. “I encourage everyone (…) to listen to the warnings at the local level, he added. It’s serious.”

Several states, such as Oklahoma and Kentucky, have already declared the state of emergency. “We have not only a large part of the country which is affected by these winter storms, but also some of the key hubs,” said on Wednesday on the MSNBC channel, the transport secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

More than 1,700 flights were canceled Thursday, according to the Flightaware flight tracking site. Chicago and Denver airports were particularly affected. Airlines American Airlines, Southwest and United assured that they were lifting for the changes in tickets on the flights scheduled for the coming days.

According to authorities, snow and winds are likely to cause blizzards in certain places, making any displacement “dangerous or sometimes impossible”. The National Weather Service (NWS), the national weather service, warned having already observed sudden temperature drops “in an hour or less”.

up to – 55 ° C

This freezing front must strengthen by Friday and continue during the Christmas weekend. His power made the NWS agency in Buffalo, in New York State said, that it was “a storm only occurring once by generation”.

The Midwest and the Great Lakes region will be particularly affected at the end of the week, with Blizzard. The temperature felt in the large plains region should reach up to – 55 ° C.

“A cold of this magnitude could cause frostbite in a few minutes on exposed skin, as well as hypothermia and death if the exposure is prolonged,” alerted the NWS. Bustques can also blow up to 80 km/h, causing possible falls of trees and power cuts.

The Private Meteorological Site Accreather warns of the possible formation of a “cyclonic bomb”, formed by the meeting of polar air with a warmer air mass, causing a very rapid pressure drop. However, from Thursday, millions of Americans are expected at the country’s airports, the holiday season this year to be “more busy” than in 2021, with a return “at the level before the pandemic”, According to the agency in charge of safety in transport.

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The roads also promise to be crowded, with 102 million Americans to drive to the place where they will spend the holidays, according to the association Automobile American. In total, around 112 million people must travel at least 80 kilometers between December 23 and January 2, according to this organization, the third highest level since it started this count, in 2000.

/Media reports cited above.