U.S. Hammered By Same Storm That’s Hitting Us
Posted December 19, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
If it’s true that misery loves company, then there are a lot of people sharing our pain on Friday.
The same storm system that’s rampaging through Ontario and the GTA has pounded parts of the U.S., leaving trouble in its wake.
As bad as the snow is, ice is worse. And that’s what folks in central Illinois are trying to deal with, after 35 centimetres of frosted flakes fell in some areas. Nearly 40,000 people are without power as a glaze covers many hydro lines.
Up to 30cm of snow is expected in Michigan before it all ends. Classes were cancelled in that state, along with school shutdowns in Ohio, New Jersey, New York and New England. There are still some 100,000 people without electricity in Massachusetts from a storm a week ago – and the new onslaught is only making things worse. Many have been staying in emergency shelters for the past seven days.
Power is also out in some 64,000 homes in Indiana, with one police officer commenting the ice covered roads in his city look like a Zamboni machine went over them.
And things weren’t much better out west. We told you on Thursday how the biggest snowfall in three decades paralyzed Las Vegas. At least 9cm fell there and kids got their first snow day since 1979.
A snow emergency is underway in Spokane, Washington, as crews work 24 hours a day to clean up from an unbelievable 49.2cm of snow that fell in just 24 hours – breaking all one-day records since they started keeping tabs on it in 1881.
And not even Southern California was spared. Snow and ice made many roads impassible skating rinks, and some in the northern part of the state were closed completely for 24 hours.
Among the wintry wonderlands is a place that rarely sees such terrible conditions: an 80-kilometre stretch of the Mojave Desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Photo credit: Nicholas Kamm/ AFP/Getty Images
