Icy weather sweeps US

Heavy snows blanket northern regions, causing at least six deaths

A ferocious storm dumped massive piles of snow on parts of upstate New York, trapping residents in their homes and stranding motorists on roads, as temperatures in all 50 US states fell to freezing or below.

Even hardened Buffalo residents were caught off-guard on Tuesday as more than 1.2 meters of snow accumulated in parts of the city. Authorities said snow totals by Wednesday afternoon could top 1.8 meters in the hardest hit areas south of Buffalo as another storm rolls through on Thursday.

Cold weather enveloped the entire country on Tuesday, leading to record-low temperatures more characteristic of January than November. Racing winds and icy roads led to accidents, school closings and delays in municipal operations from the Midwest to the South, even where snowfall was minimal or mercifully absent.

In a region accustomed to highway-choking snowstorms, this one is being called one of the worst in memory. Windblown snow forced the closure of a 212-kilometer stretch of the main highway across New York state.

The storm was blamed for at least six deaths in New York, New Hampshire and Michigan.

"We have tried to get out of our house, and we are lucky to be able to shovel so we can open the door," said Linda Oakley of Buffalo. "We're just thinking that in case of an emergency, we can at least get out the door. We can't go any farther."

The storm forced scores of motorists, including a women's basketball team, to ride out the onslaught in their vehicles. They waited for hours to be freed, with some waiting more than a day. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed 150 members of the National Guard to help clear snow-clogged roads and remove abandoned vehicles.

By early Wednesday, a state highway official said most but not all passenger vehicles had been cleared.

"It seemed like a nightmare. It just didn't feel like it was going to end," Bryce Foreback, 23, of Shicora, Pennsylvania, told The Associated Press by cell phone 20 hours into his wait for help. "I haven't slept in like 30 hours and I'm just waiting to get out of here."

Foreback became stuck in a long line of cars just south of Buffalo at about 10:30 on Monday night.

Members of the Niagara University women's basketball team were napping on and off 17 hours into their wait on Tuesday night. Some got so thirsty they drank melted snow, said Coach Kendra Faustin, who was traveling with her 1-year-old.

The lake-effect snow created a stark divide: In downtown Buffalo and north of the city, there was a mere dusting, while in the southern parts, snow was heavy everywhere. The band of weather that brought the snow was very much evident throughout the day as gray clouds persistently hovered over the southern parts of the city. A wall of falling snow could be seen from a distance of 1.6 kilometers.

In New Hampshire and elsewhere, icy roads led to accidents. Lake-effect storms in Michigan produced gale-force winds and as much as 18 inches of snow. Several flights at the Grand Rapids airport were canceled.

In Atlanta, tourists Morten and Annette Larsen from Copenhagen were surprised by temperatures of-1 C as they took photos of a monument to the 1996 Summer Olympics.

"It's as cold here as it is in Denmark right now. We didn't expect that," Larsen said.

(China Daily 11/20/2014 page12)