Arctic Blast Death Toll Rising as U.S. Braces for More Cold

The U.S. is bracing for further severe weather as the death toll from a devastating storm continues to rise.

Storm Elliott has killed at least 34 people across the U.S., according to a tally by the Associated Press. Sky News reported that the toll in the U.S. and Canada, where four people died after a bus rolled over on an icy road, has risen above 50.

The storm is expected to claim more lives after trapping some inside houses and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

Buffalo, New York, has been especially hard hit with hurricane-force winds and heavy snow that paralyzed emergency response efforts.

At least 13 deaths have been confirmed in the area, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said on Monday after reporting that a 22-year-old woman was found dead in a car in Buffalo.

Earlier, he reported that some of the dead had been found outside, while others died while emergency responders were delayed. "Unfortunately, we do expect that number to grow," Poloncarz said in a tweet.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said Monday that the Arctic air "enveloping much of the eastern half of the U.S. will be slow to moderate."

Much of the eastern U.S. "will remain in a deep freeze through Monday, before a moderating trend sets in on Tuesday," the NWS said.

Lake-effect snows will "continue to result in locally hazardous travel conditions for the next couple of days but conditions are expected to slowly improve as we head into the last week of 2022."

Lake-effect snow happens when cold air, often originating from Canada, moves across the open waters of the Great Lakes, producing heavy snow, according to the NWS.

The western U.S., meanwhile, will be "transitioning to a more active, stormy pattern as a series of fast-moving low pressure systems move inland and track through the Intermountain West spreading mixed precipitation across portions of the Northwest and California," the NWS said.

According to poweroutage.us, more than 13,000 customers were without power in New York as of early Monday.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a state-wide state of emergency and deployed the National Guard.

On Sunday, she urged people to respect an ongoing travel ban as dangerous conditions continue.

"This will go down in history as the most devastating storm in Buffalo's long storied history," she said during a video briefing on Christmas Day.

"I have lived through most of them. I'm a Buffalonian and all of us think in historic and epic terms, but this one is for the ages and we're still in the middle of it."

"We still have people who need to be rescued. We have people with their power off in our communities and buildings where pipes are bursting and flooding is occurring... I cannot overstate how dangerous the conditions still are. We need people to stay off the roads."