Brutally cold weather reaching deep into the lower United States

The bracing cold followed a week of storms that were responsible for at least 67 deaths in the U.S., many of them associated with hypothermia or traffic accidents.

MEMPHIS, Tenn: Arctic weather brought more misery to much of the US on Saturday, especially for people unaccustomed to such bitter cold in places like Memphis, Tennessee, where residents were urged to boil water and some had no water at all after freezing temperatures had broken the water pipe on the other side of the country. city. The temperature was not expected to rise until after the weekend.

The bracing cold followed a week of storms that were responsible for at least 67 deaths in the U.S., many of them associated with hypothermia or traffic accidents.

At the Four Way Grill in Memphis, owner Patrice Bates Thompson said water problems closed their soul food kitchen for days.

“This is our staple, and this is what actually drives the strength of my family financially,” Thompson told Fox-13 Memphis. “We depend on the business community, and we have been stuck at home.”

In Memphis, so many pipes broke that water pressure dropped throughout the city. Concerned about possible contamination, Memphis Light, Gas & Water urged its more than 400,000 customers to boil water for drinking or brushing teeth or using bottled materials on Saturday as crews worked around the clock to make repairs .

“Our water production and treatment is working well,” the utility said in an email. “We cannot provide recovery estimates until all leaks have been identified.”

The utility said more than 100 employees volunteered Saturday to identify breaks, and residents were urged to report leaks on the streets, at homes and in vacant buildings.

Without water since Thursday morning, Pamela Wells was visited by a worker on Saturday who asked if they had a leak.

“My husband said, 'How can we have a leak if we don't have water?'” she said.

They had filled a bathtub with water to flush the toilets when they noticed the pressure dropping, Wells said. For everything else, they used a dwindling supply of bottled water until their street became passable again on Saturday and friends brought in new supplies.

“It was a struggle,” she said, recalling how they lost water for 10 days in December 2022. “You don't know how long it will be out.”

Meanwhile, the Memphis City Council opened seven bottled water distribution stations on Saturday, one in each council district. Two others were active at fire stations. There were 300 cars in line when it opened on Saturday, Shelby County Emergency Management Director Brenda Jones said in a phone interview.

“You have people who have absolutely no water, people with low water pressure, and you have the advice to boil water,” she said.

Wind chill is in effect for much of the US, from Montana to central Florida. It was especially tough in the Midwest. Winds made it feel like minus 16 degrees (minus 26 degrees Celsius) in Iowa City on Saturday, and wind chills hovered around zero overnight in Oklahoma City, where David Overholser sought shelter with the nonprofit Homeless Alliance.

“Being 63 and originally from Florida, I don't like the cold. I can't handle it,” Overholser told The Oklahoman. “It's been really, really hard and painful and I'm just trying to take it one day, one hour at a time… it's definitely scary.”

Wind chills dropped to minus 20 Fahrenheit (minus 28 degrees Celsius) early Saturday in Vermont, where Stowe Mountain Resort urged hardy skiers to “get out all the gear you need to hang out safely on the mountain, take regular warm-up breaks indoors and keep a close eye on each other for signs of frostbite.”

Ravens fans unaccustomed to such cold in Baltimore gathered for near-zero wind chills (minus 17 degrees Celsius) for Saturday's playoff against the Houston Texans, but the weekend weather was business as usual in Buffalo, where the Bills called for more shovelers to complete the clearing of snow from the stands before Sunday's big game. Highmark Stadium was smothered by five feet of lake-effect snow in five days.

The snow tapered off in the Northeast after covering a wide area, including Washington and New York City. In New York, aid groups distributed food and clothing near an elementary school on Saturday to migrants who bundled up in heavy coats and knitted hats to ward off freezing temperatures.

More snow came to West Virginia, where the weather service forecast up to 4 inches on Saturday, along with wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour, dropping wind chills to 20 below zero (minus 29 degrees Celsius).

More lake-related snow hit northwestern Indiana Friday through Saturday, creating near-whiteout conditions near Lake Michigan and making the busy highway corridor to and from Chicago treacherous.

“We're kind of taking a gamble: rolling the dice,” Frank Finney told WBBM-TV. Finney and his family navigated Interstate 94 through Michigan City to La Porte, Indiana.

Tennessee alone recorded 26 deaths, including a 25-year-old man who was found dead on the floor of a mobile home in Lewisburg after a space heater fell over and turned off, said Bob Johnson, chief deputy for the Marshall County Sheriff's Office.

“There was ice on the walls in there,” Johnson said.

On the West Coast, more freezing rain was forecast in the Columbia River Gorge on Saturday and the area was expected to remain near or below freezing through Sunday night. Trees and power lines already covered in ice could fall if they get more, the National Weather Service warned.

“Stay safe over the next few days as our region tries to thaw,” the weather service said. “Chunks of falling ice will also remain a hazard.”

Thousands have been without power in parts of Oregon's Willamette Valley since last weekend due to storm damage. Despite the work of repair crews, about 25,000 customers were without electricity in Oregon on Saturday, according to the website poweroutage.us.

The weather service is predicting above-average temperatures in most of the country next week. Meanwhile, not everyone hated the white stuff.

“It's fun now,” Michigan City resident Andrew Smith told WBBM-TV. “We haven't had this much snow in a minute, and Christmas hasn't snowed, so it's fun to do this. I can play with the kids, make snowballs, make a snowman.”