In the United States, more than 3,400 flights were canceled on Monday due to weather conditions, while the airport closure in Buffalo, New York, was extended until Wednesday.
According to data from the professional portal FlightAware, flight cancellations affected almost all airports in the United States during the peak Christmas travel period on Monday, most notably the airports of Denver, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle, Baltimore, and Chicago. Two-thirds of Southwest Airlines flights were unable to take off.
The central airport in the western part of New York state in Buffalo, which was most affected by the snowstorm, has been out of service for several days, on Monday, 125 centimeters of snow covered the runways, and according to the latest report, they will not be able to make it operational again until Wednesday.
Local time Monday evening showed the death toll in Erie County had risen to 28, making the blizzard the deadliest weather disaster of all time in state history.
Governor Kathy Hochul spoke by phone with President Joe Biden about available federal funds. During his visit to the city of Buffalo, the head of the state announced that practically no fire engines can drive in the settlement due to snow obstacles, and the traffic ban for the population is still in effect.
Mark Ponocarz, the head of Erie County, drew attention on Monday to the fact that the end of what he described as “probably the worst storm of our lifetime” is not yet over. Several people died in and around the city of Buffalo because ambulances could not attend to them in time, or because they were stuck in their homes or cars for days.
In the past 5 days, 18,700 domestic and international flights in the United States had to be canceled, and there were many delayed flights, which caused absolute chaos in holiday travel.
MTI
