New York - (AFP) - Emergency crews began inspecting the losses of the snow storm that prevented millions of Americans from celebrating Christmas, especially in the snow-covered areas of western New York, where the number of deaths due to the weather reached 25 on Monday, in what the authorities described as a "war with Mother Nature." Against the storm of the century.

Parts of the northeastern United States continued to face a series of extreme weather events with associated snow, winds and freezing temperatures that swept the country over several days, causing widespread power outages, flight cancellations and at least 47 deaths.

Extreme weather has led to more than 15,000 flights being canceled in recent days, including about 1,700 on Monday, according to Flightaware.com.

Meteorologists expected that snowfall would continue in Buffalo, which is accustomed to bad winter weather, and that a layer of 14 inches (35 centimeters) thick would be added on Monday, in addition to what had accumulated for days, paralyzing the city and collapsing its emergency services.

Stormy weather continued to camp over Erie County in western New York, where Buffalo is located, which has become the epicenter of the weather crisis.
"In addition to the 13 deaths confirmed yesterday, the Erie County Health Department's Office has confirmed 12 additional deaths, bringing the county-wide total number of deaths from the blizzard to 25," Mark Polonkarz, Erie County Executive Officer, told a news conference.

The severe weather makes this "probably the worst storm in our lives and in the history of the city," Boloncars added, noting that the number of deaths in Erie will likely exceed the victims of the blizzard that hit Buffalo in 1977, which killed about 30 people.

With more snow expected and most of Buffalo's roads declared "impassable," Boloncars warned residents to stay indoors.

"This is not the end yet, we are not there yet," he said.

National Guard personnel and other teams rescued hundreds of people from cars buried under snow, but authorities said more people were still trapped.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she was shocked by what she saw during a reconnaissance tour of the city Sunday.

Hochul described the matter as "a war zone, and the sight of cars on both sides of the roads is shocking," noting the threat of snow accumulated by more than two meters to homes and the residents' suffering from power outages.

"It's a war with Mother Nature," she said. "It is certainly the storm of the century," she told reporters, adding that "it is too early to say that it is about to end."

Severe weather sent temperatures in 48 US states below freezing over the weekend.
Poloncars said that power would not be fully restored in Buffalo until Monday, and that Buffalo International Airport would remain closed until Tuesday.

Ali Lawson, 34, who has lived in Buffalo for eight years, told AFP on Saturday that "the winds are so strong" that the snow is shaped like "sand dunes". He described the situation as "crazy".

More than 48,000 homes were without electricity on the East Coast on Sunday, according to the website "Power-Autige", which reported power outages for about 150,000 homes initially.

The US Weather Service said it expects temperatures to return to normal seasonal levels "by the middle of next week."

In the province of British Columbia in Canada, a bus overturned Saturday, probably due to ice, killed four people and transferred 53 others to hospital, including two who were in critical condition early Sunday morning.

Hundreds of thousands of people were deprived of power in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, a large number of flights were canceled in major cities, and passenger train service between Toronto and Ottawa was suspended.