A huge swath of the U.S. was blasted with ice, snow and wind on Monday as the polar vortex that dipped south over the weekend kept much of the country east of the Rockies in its frigid grip, making many roads treacherous, forcing school closures, and causing widespread power outages and flight cancellations.
Winter storm blamed for boil-water advisory in Virginia’s capital
A weather-related power outage has caused a malfunction in the water system of Virginia’s capital city, officials said Monday afternoon.
Richmond officials asked citizens in the city of more than 200,000 people to refrain from drinking tap water or washing dishes and brushing their teeth without boiling the water first. The city also asked residents to conserve their water.
City officials said they’re working around the clock to bring the system back online.
“Our top priority is the health and safety of our residents and neighbors,” Mayor Danny Avula said in a news release.
Roads are still treacherous in Kansas, governor says
The Kansas Highway Patrol has reported nearly 200 crashes from Saturday morning through Monday morning, two of them deadly.
On Saturday, a tractor-trailer jackknifed in the ice in the western part of the state, killing a pickup truck’s driver. And two others died Sunday when an SUV rolled down an embankment in Wichita.
Gov. Laura Kelly closed state offices in the Topeka area through Tuesday, and many school districts followed suit.
“Although crews are making progress, the roads remain hazardous,” Kelly said in a news release.
A third person has died in a storm-related traffic accident
A fatal accident in North Carolina is being blamed on the winter storm that’s moving through the East Coast.
Police in Winston-Salem say a vehicle lost control on an icy overpass along U.S. Route 52 and hit several trees early Monday. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
At least two other people have died in weather-related traffic accidents in Virginia and West Virginia. The accidents were among hundreds reported across Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky.
The winter storm has contributed to at least 2 deaths in traffic accidents
In Virginia, a 32-year-old man died Sunday night in Wakefield, south of Richmond, after his truck ran off a road and struck a tree. Police said, among other contributing factors, the man was driving too fast for the wintry conditions on the roadway.
In West Virginia, a driver lost control of her vehicle and it struck a concrete median Sunday on Interstate 77 south of Charleston. A tractor-trailer then struck the woman and another vehicle that stopped to help. The driver, Alexis Vega, 25, of Cleveland, Ohio, later died at a hospital. State police Lt. L.T. Goldie Jr. said the weather was a factor in the accident.
Source : https://apnews.com/live/winter-weather-snow-midwest-east-coast-updates