36 photos show the repercussions of the polar storm in the United States… and 30 deaths

The death toll has increased The extreme cold that strikes the United States has led to 30 deaths, including seven who died in a plane crash on Sunday night, in light of the continuing polar cold wave that deprived more than half a million homes of electricity on Tuesday morning.

Temperatures are expected to drop sharply in the coming days as a result of a polar air mass, especially in the northern regions of the country, where the temperature felt by the wind may reach minus 45 degrees Celsius.
It has Heavy snowfall, with a thickness exceeding 30 centimeters in about 20 American states, led to a widespread power outage.

According to the website "Power OTG" The specialist poweroutage.us said that more than 530,000 customers were without electricity on Tuesday morning, most of them in the southern United States, specifically in the states of Mississippi and Tennessee, where the weight of the ice caused power lines to fall.

More than 175,000 people were affected in Tennessee, and more than 140,000 in Mississippi. Electricity was also cut off for about 100,000 customers in Louisiana.

Meteorologist Allison Santorelli told AFP. " Power supply for several more days, while the authorities face difficulties to recover (from the effects of the storm). Most of these areas do not have the means or resources to remove snow and damage after such events, because they are not accustomed to it"

New York-based meteorologist Dave Radell explained to Agence France-Presse that the snow that fell during the storm was "Extremely dry" and"Fragile"which means that the wind is able to disperse it easily, which hinders efforts to remove snow from the roads and reduces the range of visibility.

Some specialized authorities consider this storm one of the worst in recent decades in the United States, and it is accompanied by ice accumulations that may have consequences. "Disastrous"According to the National Weather Service.

These harsh weather conditions led to the death of at least 30 people, according to statistics compiled by Agence France-Presse based on information from American media.

In Texas, authorities confirmed the death of a 16-year-old girl in a skiing accident. Two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana, and another person died in Iowa as a result of a crash.

The bodies of eight people were found in New York, and an investigation began to determine the causes of death.

On Sunday evening, a plane crash during take-off during a snowstorm in the state of Maine (northeast of the country) led to the deaths of seven of its eight passengers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

A state of emergency was declared in about twenty states, in addition to the federal capital, Washington, which It led to a major disruption of transportation.

Air traffic stopped almost completely at many major airports in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, while more than 22,000 flights were canceled since Saturday, and thousands of other flights were delayed, according to the website. "Flight Aware" Specializing in monitoring air traffic.

The storm is linked to a polar vortex, which is a mass of air that usually rotates over the North Pole, but has extended south.

Scientists believe that the increasing frequency of these disturbances may be linked to climate change, although the debate has not yet been resolved, and natural fluctuations also play a role in it.

President Donald Trump, who denies climate change, used the storm as an excuse to reiterate his skepticism about climate risks, writing: His platform is Truth Social "Can these environmentalists explain to me: What happened to warming?".