Winter storm hits eastern US and Canada, disrupting travel

A major winter storm blanketed a swath of North America with snow on Monday and cut off the east coast of U.S toward Canada, disrupting travel and cutting power to thousands of homes.

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About 120,000 US customers were without power at 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time (21:45 GMT), according to the PowerOutage.us portal, especially in West Virginia and the southeastern states of North and South Carolina and Georgia.

Transportation has been seriously affected with thousands of flights canceled and a section of Interstate I95 closed in North Carolina.

Nearly 1,600 flights to, within, or from the United States had been canceled as of midday Monday, adding to 3,000 cancellations the day before, according to monitoring site FlightAware.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina was the hardest hit, with 1,200 canceled flights, more than 90% of scheduled trips.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said it will “slowly decrease in wind intensity” but snow will continue to fall into the evening in upper New York and New England.

The heaviest snowfall, 2 feet 2.5 inches, was recorded in Ashtabula, Ohio, the agency said.

“Significant impacts from snow, ice, wind and coastal flooding will continue across a vast area,” the NWS warned in a tweet.

The storm generated tornado damage in Florida, while in the Carolinas and the upper Appalachian Mountains, weather conditions caused concern.

Powerful winds toppled trees and caused flooding, with a storm surge of 3.6 meters reported in Boston.

In Canada, a good part of the provinces of Quebec and Ontario continue to be affected by the snowstorm or with a strong wind warning, according to the website of the government of that country.

In Toronto, about 60 centimeters of snow was expected.

“A historic storm for the city,” tweeted Anthony Farnell, chief meteorologist for Canada’s Global News television channel.

In that same city, police tweeted that they had to close two sections of the highway due to extreme cold and asked drivers to stay home.

Several schools were closed and school buses were not operating in Quebec and southern Ontario, including the Toronto area. The students were due to return to classes in both provinces this Monday after the holidays.

– State of emergency –

Drivers were warned of dangerous road conditions as well as major problems traveling from the southern US state of Arkansas to Quebec in Canada.

“We are seeing many vehicles that need to stop and defrost their windshield,” Quebec’s transport minister said in a tweet early Monday.

“Heavy precipitation and gusty winds allow ice to form despite windshield wipers, all the more reason to stay home,” he added.

Officials in the United States have also discouraged driving in several states and deployed teams to handle emergencies, especially in the South where snow is far less common.

Monday is a holiday throughout the United States, so schools and many businesses are closed, however, many drivers take advantage of the long weekend to travel.

The United States already experienced winter chaos due to heavy snow falls earlier this month after a storm covered large areas in the northeast, hundreds of drivers were stuck for more than 24 hours on I-95, a road axis that connects with Washington .

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Deshawn