Americans will remember this Christmas as one of the coldest in decades. Winter storm Elliott 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.
I’m in Buffalo providing a storm update. Watch live: https://t.co/CkDcGEGmGn
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) December 26, 2022
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:
Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that an emergency exists in the State of New York and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from a severe winter storm beginning on December 23, 2022, and continuing.
NEW: @POTUS approved our request for a federal disaster emergency declaration as we help Western New York recover from this historic blizzard.
Thankful to President Biden, @SenSchumer, @gillibrandny, @RepBrianHiggins, and @RepJacobs for your partnership.
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) December 27, 2022
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":
USDOT is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service. The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.
— TransportationGov (@USDOT) December 27, 2022
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.
