A lone pedestrian in snow shoes makes his way across Colonial Circle as St. John's Grace Episcopal Church rises above the blowing snow amid blizzard conditions in Buffalo, N.Y. on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022.
A winter storm rolls through Western New York Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Amherst N.Y. A battering winter storm has knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes homes and businesses across the United States on Saturday. It left millions more to worry about the prospect of further outages and crippled police and fire departments.
A giant tree lays across the intersection of West Delavan Avenue and Bidwell Parkway in Buffalo, N.Y. on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022.
A person clears snow as a winter storm rolls through Western New York Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Amherst N.Y. A battering winter storm has knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes homes and businesses across the United States on Saturday. It left millions more to worry about the prospect of further outages and crippled police and fire departments.
Pedestrians walk along West Argyle Street in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. Temperatures climbed up to 14 degrees Saturday afternoon, after Chicago was below zero for 29 hours, according to the National Weather Service.
This satellite image made available by NOAA shows weather systems across North America on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, at 12:06 p.m. EST. A battering winter storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the United States on Saturday, left millions more to worry about the prospect of further outages and crippled police, fire departments and an airport in snow-blown New York state.
The fountain is frozen as temperatures hovered in the mid 20's at Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home in New Orleans, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. Millions of Americans are facing blinding blizzards, freezing rain, flooding and life-threatening cold through Christmas as a winter storm of unprecedented scope smashes its frigid way through most of the country.
Dan O'Conor, known as the "Great Lake Jumper," dries off after jumping into Lake Michigan, in Chicago, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. Temperatures climbed up to 14 degrees Saturday afternoon, after Chicago was below zero for 29 hours, according to the National Weather Service.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) and tackle Spencer Brown (79) exhale before a successful two-point attempt in the second half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022.
A winter storm rolls through Western New York Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Amherst N.Y. A battering winter storm has knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes homes and businesses across the United States on Saturday. It left millions more to worry about the prospect of further outages and crippled police and fire departments.
Icicles cling to strawberry plants at a field Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Plant City, Fla. Farmers spray their crops with sprinklers to help protect them from the damaging freeze. Temperatures overnight in the area dipped into the mid-20's.
A person walks on the street as a winter storm rolls through Western New York Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Amherst N.Y. A battering winter storm has knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes homes and businesses across the United States on Saturday. It left millions more to worry about the prospect of further outages and crippled police and fire departments.
Football fans watch pregame warmups before an NFL football game between the Cleveland Browns and the New Orleans , Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Cleveland.
Three men walk down Richmond Avenue in whiteout conditions during a sustained blizzard in Buffalo, N.Y. on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022.
More than 800 runners dressed as Santa Claus braved near freezing temperatures to participate in the Run Run Santa 1 Mile Saturday Dec. 24, 2022 in Viera, Fla. The temperatures were in the low 30's and the coldest in the race's 7-year history.
Icicles hang from ornamental plants at sunrise Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Plant City, Fla. Farmers spray their crops with sprinklers to help protect them. Temperatures overnight dipped into the mid-20's.
A farmer drives by an icicle covered fence as he checks on his ornamental plants before sunrise Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, in Plant City, Fla. Farmers spray their crops with sprinklers to help protect them. Temperatures overnight dipped into the mid-20's.
Gamaliel Vega tries to dig out his car on Lafayette Avenue after he got stuck in a snowdrift about a block from home while trying to help rescue his cousin, who had lost power and heat with a baby at home across town during a blizzard in Buffalo, N.Y., on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022.
Snow drifts over the sidewalk on West Delavan Avenue in Buffalo, N.Y. on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022.
Brian Dickie, dressed as Santa Claus, rides his bike through the wintery streets of Carleton Place, Ontario, Christmas Eve, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. A major winter storm system continues to affect eastern Ontario.
A person walks through the Central Experimental Farm during strong winds and snow squalls in Ottawa, Canada, on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022. Environment Canada has issued a winter storm warning for the region.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Millions of people hunkered down in a deep freeze overnight and early morning to ride out the frigid storm that has killed at least 18 people across the United States, trapping some residents inside homes with heaping snow drifts and knocking out power to several hundred thousand homes and businesses.
The scope of the storm has been nearly unprecedented, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.
Some 1,346 domestic and international flights were canceled as of early Sunday, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.
The storm unleashed its full fury on Buffalo, with hurricane-force winds and snow causing whiteout conditions, paralyzing emergency response efforts — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said almost every fire truck in the city was stranded — and shutting down the airport through Monday, according to officials. The National Weather Service said the snow total at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport stood at 43 inches (109 centimeters) at 7 a.m. Sunday.
Freezing conditions and day-old power outages had Buffalonians scrambling Saturday to get out of their homes to anywhere that had heat. But with city streets under a thick blanket of white, that wasn't an option for people like Jeremy Manahan, who charged his phone in his parked car after almost 29 hours without electricity.
“There’s one warming shelter, but that would be too far for me to get to. I can’t drive, obviously, because I’m stuck,” Manahan said. “And you can’t be outside for more than 10 minutes without getting frostbit.”
Mark Poloncarz, executive of Erie County, home to Buffalo, said ambulances were taking more than three hours to make a single hospital trip and the blizzard may be “the worst storm in our community’s history.”
Two people died in their suburban Cheektowaga, New York, homes Friday when emergency crews could not reach them in time to treat their medical conditions, he said, and another died in Buffalo.
“We can’t just pick up everybody and take you to a warming center. We don’t have the capability of doing that,” Poloncarz said. “Many, many neighborhoods, especially in the city of Buffalo, are still impassable.”
Ditjak Ilunga of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was on his way to visit relatives in Hamilton, Ontario, for Christmas with his daughters Friday when their SUV was trapped in Buffalo. Unable to get help, they spent hours with the engine running in the vehicle buffeted by wind and nearly buried in snow.
By 4 a.m. Saturday, with their fuel nearly gone, Ilunga made a desperate choice to risk the howling storm to reach a nearby shelter. He carried 6-year-old Destiny on his back while 16-year-old Cindy clutched their Pomeranian puppy, stepping into his footprints as they trudged through drifts.
“If I stay in this car I’m going to die here with my kids,” he recalled thinking, but believing they had to try. He cried when the family walked through the shelter doors. “It’s something I will never forget in my life."
The storm knocked out power in communities from Maine to Seattle, and a major electricity grid operator warned 65 million people across the eastern U.S. of possible rolling blackouts.
But heat and lights were steadily being restored across the U.S. According to poweroutage.us, less than 300,000 customers were without power at 8 a.m. EDT Sunday - down from a peak of 1.7 million. In North Carolina, less than 6,600 customers had no power - down from a peak of 485,000 or more. Utility officials said rolling blackouts would continue for the next few days.
Across the six New England states, about 121,300 customers remained without power on Sunday, with Maine still the hardest hit. Some utilities said electricity may not be restored for days.
Storm-related deaths were reported in recent days all over the country: four dead in an Ohio Turnpike pileup involving some 50 vehicles; four motorists killed in separate crashes in Missouri and Kansas; an Ohio utility worker electrocuted; a Vermont woman struck by a falling branch; an apparently homeless man found amid Colorado's subzero temperatures; a woman who fell through Wisconsin river ice.
In Mexico, migrants camped near the U.S. border were facing unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on pandemic-era restrictions preventing many from seeking asylum.
Along Interstate 71 in Kentucky, Terry Henderson and her husband, Rick, weathered a 34-hour traffic jam in a rig outfitted with a diesel heater, a toilet and a refrigerator after getting stuck trying to drive from Alabama to their Ohio home for Christmas.
“We should have stayed,” Terry Henderson said after they got moving again Saturday.
Poloncarz of Erie County tweeted late Saturday that 34.6 inches (about 88 centimeters) of snow had accumulated at the Buffalo Airport and drifts were well over 6 feet (1.8 meters) in some areas. Blizzard conditions were expected to ease early Sunday, he continued, but continuing lake effect snow was forecast.
Vivian Robinson of Spirit of Truth Urban Ministry in Buffalo said she and her husband have been sheltering and cooking for 60 to 70 people, including stranded travelers and locals without power or heat, who were spending Saturday night at the church.
Many arrived with ice and snow plastered to their clothes, crying, their skin reddened by the single-digit temperatures. On Saturday night, they prepared to spend Christmas together.
“It’s emotional just to see the hurt that they thought they were not going to make it, and to see that we had opened up the church, and it gave them a sense of relief,” Robinson said. “Those who are here are really enjoying themselves. It’s going to be a different Christmas for everyone.”
Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press journalist Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Corey Williams in Southfield, Michigan; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Maysoon Khan in Albany, New York; Hannah Schoenbaum in Raleigh, North Carolina; Wilson Ring in Stowe, Vermont; and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
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