Terrifying footage as Winter Storm Blair batters United States
Terrifying footage has emerged as a deadly winter storm batters the US, causing 350,000 power outages and thousands of flight cancellations.
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Shocking footage has emerged as a wild winter storm batters the US.
A huge truck was seen sliding across multiple lanes on a highway in Missouri, while an avalanche roared down a mountain in Utah, with the filmer rolling up their car window just in time. (Watch in the video player above).
Winter Storm Blair is believed to have killed at least five people, with the governors of Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia and Maryland declaring a state of emergency in their states, and warned residents to stay home.
More than 230,000 customers across five states are still without power, according to tracking website Poweroutage.us, down from an earlier number of more than 350,000. Power outages could go on for days.
There have been more than 2100 flights cancelled and 6900 more delayed on Monday, according to flight tracking data from FlightAware.
That is on top of the 1816 flights cancelled and 9343 delayed the day before, causing travel chaos.
Missouri residents have been urged to avoid travel due to hazardous road conditions across the state. In a recent update, Missouri State Highway Patrol said there had been 1788 stranded motorists, 436 crashes, 38 injuries️ and one death between January 4 and January 6.
Weather.com senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said locations in six different states – Maryland, Delaware, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana – had reported at least a foot (30.5cm) of snow.
They are being dubbed “The One Foot Club”.
The cities of Salina and Topeka in northern Kansas have recorded the most with 18 inches (46.7cm) of snow.
The 11 inches of snow that fell in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday made it the heaviest snowstorm there since February 1993, according to Weather.com. That is over 30 years.
The five deaths connected to Winter Storm Blair include when a truck slid into a pedestrian in Missouri, two people were killed in a crash in Kansas, and one who died when his truck skidded and hit a tree in Virginia. A man was also found dead outside of a bus stop in Texas “due to cold weather”.
Lethal conditions
The National Weather Service warned thunderstorms could also impact southeastern states, bringing hail and tornadoes, and that accumulations of thick ice – as well as widespread tree damage from powerful wind gusts – could lead to prolonged power outages.
Temperatures are expected to plunge, in some places to below zero degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius), while strong wind gusts compound the dangers.
A powerful system sweeps through the eastern half of the US, bringing blizzards, ice storms, and severe weather. pic.twitter.com/8yFodf1jLb
— CIRA (@CIRA_CSU) January 6, 2025
The mercury could sink tens of degrees below seasonal norms on the US Gulf Coast.
Another major concern is freezing rain and sleet.
Ice will make travel hazardous, bring down trees and topple electricity lines, authorities warned.
Conditions could prove especially perilous in the Appalachian mountain region, where a deadly hurricane in late September devastated communities and ravaged multiple southeastern states including Kentucky.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Terrifying footage as Winter Storm Blair batters United States
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