By JIM SALTER and CLAIRE RUSH (Associated Press)
ST. LOUIS — Brutally cold weather could prove a deadly challenge Saturday amid a continuing wave of Arctic storms that has hammered much of the country with blinding snow, freezing rain and whipping winds.
Governors from New York to Louisiana declared states of emergency ahead of predicted snow and bone-chilling temperatures. In St. Louis, the National Weather Service bureau warned of rare and “life-threatening” cold.
The fierce weather blitzed campaign schedules in Iowa, the leadoff GOP caucus state. With a blizzard warning covering most of the state, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump all shuffled their schedules ahead of Monday’s presidential vote.
Near-record cold in Kansas City will make for a frigid NFL playoff game Saturday night, when the Chiefs host Miami. Fans will be allowed to bring in blankets and first-aid stations were set up at Arrowhead Stadium. On Sunday, fans in Buffalo will contend with up to a foot (30 centimeters) of snow and fierce winds as the Bills host Pittsburgh.
The National Weather Service on Friday warned that a powerful storm would rock the Midwest to the Great Lakes through Saturday with heavy snow, strong winds and blizzards. Dangerously frigid weather would follow across the Rockies and the Plains, while heavy rain across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic would threaten river and coastal flooding.
Some areas of the Northeast had flooding concerns. Emergency responders helped evacuate some residents from their homes in Paterson, New Jersey, early Friday as the Passaic River started overflowing its banks. The new storm, combined with one earlier in the week, created flooding worries in Maine and New Hampshire, too.
It was minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit in Bismarck, North Dakota on Friday morning, and forecasters warned the weekend could see temperatures reach 20 below F by early Sunday.
Black ice from freezing rain caused wrecks and brought Kansas City, Missouri, to a standstill.
At the Double Cross Cattle Company, a ranch south of Roberts, Montana, Tyson Ropp used an axe on Friday morning to chop through inches of ice covering a trough so that his bulls could get to their water.
“It’s just Montana,” he added with a shrug.
But the weather won’t spare any part of the country this weekend, forecasters said.
In the county that includes Portland, Oregon, which is more used to wintery rain than ice and snow, officials declared a weather emergency and opened severe weather shelters for the homeless. The county and non-profit groups this week distributed thousands of jackets, gloves, ponchos and other items.
In California, a warning of high avalanche danger was issued for parts of the Sierra Nevada, including the Lake Tahoe area, where an avalanche at a ski resort killed one man on Wednesday. The same was true in Idaho, where a man was presumed dead in an avalanche Thursday.
“EVERY state in the US has an active NWS watch, warning, or advisory,” the National Weather Service announced Friday as it posted a color-coded map that showed portions of states under threat from storms, winds, floods, blizzards and avalanches.
Chicago was expecting several inches of snow through the weekend, with wind gusts to 50 miles per hour and wind chills as low as minus 15 degrees F that could cause frostbite to exposed skin in just 15 minutes, the weather service warned.
Authorities said a suburban Chicago man had died of exposure, apparently becoming the first cold-related death of the season. The man, whose identity wasn’t released, was found Thursday in the suburb of Schiller Park, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Advocates worried for the growing population of migrants sent up to Chicago from the U.S.-Mexico border — more than 26,000 have arrived since last year. By Friday, dozens were staying in eight parked “warming buses” to avoid sleeping outside while they await space in city-run shelters.
Angelo Travieso, a Venezuelan bused up from Texas, wore a light jacket and sandals with socks after sleeping on one of the buses.
“I slept sitting because there is almost no space left,” he said. “The buses are also small and you practically have to stay inside because of the heating, because it is deadly cold outside.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker released a letter Friday pleading with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop sending migrants to Chicago during the dangerous weather.
“At least pause these transports to save lives,” the letter said.
In a reply, Abbott refused to stop what he called “voluntary” trips “until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border.”
The South wasn’t immune to winter’s wrath. Severe storms with winds reaching 70 mph stretched across Mississippi on Friday.
The governors of Arkansas and Louisiana declared states of emergency Friday in anticipation of stormy and frigid weather, with temperatures plunging to subfreezing in New Orleans by next week.
Abbott, meanwhile, urged Texans to get ready for a chill with ice on the way Monday.
