Heavy snow and rain battered California and other parts of the West Friday in the nation’s last winter storm, while tens of thousands of people in Michigan suffered sub-freezing temperatures days after it one of the worst ice storms in decades widespread power outages.
Winter stormy days knocked out power to nearly 1 million homes and businesses from coast to coast, shut down major highways, they caused chain accidents on the highways and hampered air travel.More than 1,200 flights were canceled and more than 17,000 delayed on Friday across the United States, though the problems lessened as night fell, according to FlightAware.com.
In California, the National Weather Service warned of cold, snowy and rainy weather through Saturday and issued flash flood warnings until 10 p.m. Friday for Los Angeles, its suburbs and a portion of Ventura County, a region that is home to about 6 million people. .
Cell phones vibrated Friday afternoon with an emergency alert that warned: “This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation.Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding.”
Some places in the flash flood warning zone could see up to 10 inches (23 centimeters) of rain, the weather service said.
Authorities warned that heavy rains could cause a debris flow in some areas burned by wildfires in recent years. Evacuation warnings were issued for some areas, and residents were urged to be ready to flee at any time.
Blizzard warnings were posted for the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges and southern California, where up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow was expected.Temperatures could drop well below normal in the region, This represents a special risk for the homeless.
“Simply put, this will be a historic event for the amount of snow on the highest peaks and the snow at lower elevations,” according to the regional weather office.
Interstate 5, the main north-south highway on the West Coast, was closed south of the Oregon border as snow fell to the Sacramento Valley floor. A high mountain pass north of Los Angeles was also closed for hours before finally reopening late Friday, though traffic was moving slowly along with a police escort.
In Michigan, hundreds of thousands of people were without power Friday after a storm earlier this week covered power lines, utility poles and branches with ice up to three-quarters of an inch (1.9 centimeters). . Governor Gretchen Whitmer called Friday for greater accountability for restoration efforts by the state’s two largest utilities.
Annemarie Rogers had been without power for a day and a half at Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. She sent two children to stay with relatives and put extra blankets on the bed to try to keep them warm.
"it’s a bit miserable"said.“We have a gas fireplace that keeps us warm in a room.The oven generates some heat, but without power to the fan, it doesn’t circulate well.”
In a moment, more than 820,000 customers in Michigan were in the dark.By Friday, that had dwindled to fewer than 600,000, most in the populous southeast corner of the state around Detroit. But promises of power restoration by Sunday, when low temperatures were expected to climb back above freezing (-18 degrees Celsius), were little comfort.
“That’s four days without power in that weather,” said Apurva Gokhale, of Walled Lake, Michigan. “It’s unthinkable.”
Tom Rankin said he and his wife were unable to reach their 100-year-old mother-in-law Friday morning by phone. The couple drove to her home in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, and found her in bed "with lots of blankets"Rankin said, adding that they helped her into her car, planning to ride out the power outage at another relative’s home.
“We haven’t had an ice storm in the last 50 years that has impacted our infrastructure like this,” said Trevor Lauer, president of Detroit-based DTE Electric.
At least three people have died in the storms. A Michigan firefighter died Wednesday after coming into contact with a downed power line while in Rochester, Minnesota, a pedestrian died after being hit by a car by a city-operated snow plow. Authorities in Portland, Oregon, said one person died of hyperthermia.
Much of Portland was shut down and icy roads are not expected to thaw until Saturday after the city’s second-heaviest snowfall on record this week — nearly 11 inches (28 centimeters).
Tim Varner sat huddled in blankets in the doorway of a Portland store, sheltering him from the wind, ice and snow. Local officials have opened six overnight shelters, but the 57-year-old, who has been homeless for two decades, said it was too difficult to push a shopping cart containing his belongings to get to one.
“It’s impossible,” he said. “Snow accumulates on the wheels of his car, and then he finds slippery places and can’t get traction. So you’re stuck.
In Northern California, snow has piled up in Santa Cruz County as roads were closed and motorists were forced to abandon their cars.
Not everyone was dismayed by the winter weather. In the San Francisco Bay Area, hundreds of people drove up the 2,500-foot (760-meter) Mount Tamalpais to play in the snow, a rarity in the area.
Shankar Krishnan, a San Francisco resident, woke up at 4 a.m. and went outside hoping to see snow for the first time in a long time.
“It feels amazing.It’s like the trees are all frozen. There is snow on the ground. Snow is falling from the sky,” Krishnan said."it’s beautiful here".
Some schools in Nevada and northern Arizona were closed, and a Major League Soccer season-opener in southern California was postponed.
The storm added to the important precipitations of the "atmospheric rivers" December and January that improved drought prospects in California, but authorities that allocate water to farms, cities and industries remain cautious due to a recent history of abrupt changes in hydrologic conditions.
