The aftermath of 'Elliott': state of emergency in New York, nearly 60 dead and thousands of flights canceled
The winter storm will continue to move across the nation through Thursday and western New York is expected to see nine inches of snowfall.
Archivo / Cordon Press
Americans will remember this Christmas as one of the coldest in decades. continues to effect people’s plans and will continue to wreak havoc until at least Thursday, when the bombogenesis is expected to subside. At the moment, according to data provided by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the death toll stands at 57.
The most affected city, according to the governor, is Buffalo, where 28 people have died. In fact, Univision reported that many of the Buffalo victims were found dead in their vehicles and outside their homes while shoveling snow. Along with this, many emergency teams struggled to respond to medical calls and this exacerbated the consequences.
On top of all this, citizens in western New York State have to trudge through nearly nine more inches of snow than the previous day (which had already recorded 43 inches), according to the National Weather Service.
These consequences prompted Hochul to ask Biden to declare a state of emergency throughout New York. The president finally granted her request late on Monday:
Canceled flights
Elliott also affected the operation of flights. According to The New York Times, more than 3,800 flights had been canceled nationwide by Monday, and more than 7,400 were delayed. The number, as of early today, does not appear to be improving. According to the latest information published by FlightAware, the problems in the air were finally going down, but there was still some inconveniences. There were 6,161 flight delays (683 within the country), while cancellations amounted to 4,378 (2,835 within the country).
Southwest Airlines was the most affected airline. According to Fox Business, the company canceled nearly 3,000 flights on Monday and, as a result, angered thousands of travelers who left complaints on its website. As a result of this, the Department of Transportation called them out in a tweet, in which it described the airline’s service as "unacceptable":
The company also released its own statement. It assured that they were working to "urgently address wide-scale disruption" while, in turn, expressing their "heartfelt apologies" for the harm caused to travelers which, they assured, was due to the Elliott storm.
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