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U.S. NEWSWednesday 3 January 2018
Deadly cold disrupts US; warming centers open in Deep South
By TAMMY WEBBER A barge cuts through ice on the Ohio River as it passes under the West End Bridge, along the North least nine deaths in the
Associated Press past week. Police in St.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Dan- Shore district in Pittsburgh on Monday, Jan. 1, 2018. Dangerously cold temperatures blamed for at Louis said a homeless man
gerously cold tempera- found dead inside a trash
tures blamed for at least least nine deaths have wreaked havoc across a wide swath of the U.S. bin Monday evening ap-
nine deaths have wreaked parently froze to death as
havoc across a wide swath (Haley Nelson/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) the temperature dropped
of the U.S., freezing a water to negative 6 degrees (-21
tower in Iowa, halting ferry power surging through util- low temperature in Indiana and -29 Celsius), forecast- Celsius). Sheriff’s officials in
service in New York and Fond du Lac County, Wis-
leading officials to open ity lines to meet electricity was minus 36 (-38 Celsius) ers warned of frost bite consin, said a 27-year-old
warming centers even in woman whose body was
the Deep South. demands. “The tempera- in 1994. Nevertheless, the and hypothermia risks and found Monday evening on
The National Weather Ser- the shore of Lake Winneba-
vice issued wind chill advi- tures are certainly extreme, cold is nothing to trifle with, urged residents to take go likely died of exposure.
sories and freeze warnings The Milwaukee County
Tuesday covering a vast but we’ve seen colder,” forecasters warned. precautions, including Medical Examiner’s Office
area from South Texas to said two men whose bod-
Canada and from Mon- said Joseph Nield, a me- With Chicago-area wind dressing in layers, wearing ies were found Sunday
tana through New Eng- showed signs of hypother-
land. teorologist in Indianapo- chills expected between a hat and gloves, covering mia. Police believe the cold
Indianapolis early Tuesday weather also may have
tied a record low of minus lis, noting that the all-time -35 and -20 degrees (-37 exposed skin and bringing been a factor in the death
12 degrees Fahrenheit (-24 of a man in Bismarck, North
Celsius) for Jan. 2 set in Dakota, whose body was
1887, leading Indianapolis found near a river.
Public Schools to cancel Warming shelters were
classes. And the northwest opened across the South
Indiana city of Lafayette as freeze watches and
got down to minus 19 (-28 warnings blanketed the re-
Celsius), shattering the pre- gion, including hard freeze
vious record of minus 5 (-21 warnings for much of Loui-
Celsius) for the date, set in siana, Mississippi and Ala-
1979, the National Weather bama. Temperatures fell to
Service said. After residents 8 degrees (-13 Celsius) near
there began complain- Cullman, Alabama, and 20
ing of a hum, Duke Energy degrees (-7 Celsius) in Mo-
said it was caused by extra bile, Alabama. Georgia
saw one of its coldest tem-
pets indoors. peratures of the winter: 2
degrees (-17 Celsius) shortly
In Tennessee, corrections before dawn at a U.S. For-
est Service weather station
officials at a maximum se- at Toccoa, Georgia.
Plunging overnight temper-
curity prison were using atures in Texas brought rare
snow flurries as far south
portable heaters and extra as Austin, and accidents
racked up on icy roads
blankets to keep inmates across the state. In the cen-
tral Texas city of Abilene,
and employees warm. the local police chief said
more than three dozen ve-
The facility lost hot water hicle crashes were report-
ed in 24 hours.
pressure Monday, caus- And in Savannah, Geor-
gia — where the January’s
ing its boiler to go offline. A average high is 60 degrees
(16 Celsius) — the tem-
spokeswoman didn’t pro- perature hovered at 30 (-1
Celsius) at noon Tuesday,
vide a timeline for its return. cold enough for icicles to
dangle from the ornate
Atlanta hospitals were see- wrought-iron fountain in
Forsyth Park at the edge
ing a surge in emergency of the city’s downtown his-
toric district. The city could
room visits for hypothermia see up to 2 inches (5 cen-
timeters) of snow and sleet
and other ailments as tem- on Wednesday, the first
measureable snow since
peratures plunge well be- February 2010.q
low freezing. The tempera-
ture in Atlanta fell to 13 de-
grees (-11 Celsius) before
dawn in Tuesday.
“We have a group of pa-
tients who are coming in off
the street who are looking
to escape the cold — we
have dozens and dozens
of those every day,” said
Dr. Brooks Moore, associ-
ate medical director in the
emergency department
of Grady Health System,
which operates Georgia’s
largest hospital in Atlanta.
The cold is blamed in at
