NBC News reported 180,000 homes were in the dark in Michigan alone. More than 70,000 customers lacked power in Maine with another 1,800 in the same boat in Vermont and 500 in New York state, the network said.
Temperatures were well below freezing across the region, with single digits reported in parts of Michigan where wind chills were below zero.
WEYI-TV, Flint, Mich., said people had flocked to hotels and motels in the Flint area, leaving them filled to capacity.
“We knew they were going to be filled up, because we heard there was a lot of outages,” Flint resident Tricia Huyck told the station.
Emergency officials said it was the most widespread outage since the Great Ice Storm of January 1998 when parts of New England were without power for months, NBC said.
“Power outages are far and away the biggest problem,” Mike Hinerman, director of emergency services in Washington County, Maine, told WCSH-TV, Portland.
“It’s as bad as we’ve had probably in the last 10 or 15 years,” Waldo County, Maine, Emergency Management Director Dale Rowley told WLBZ-TV, Bangor.
WKYC-TV, Cleveland, reported a snow squall led to a 28-vehicle pileup in the Cleveland area that snarled Interstate 90 for about 6 hours Christmas Eve and left many motorists scrambling for a place to spend the night. One motorist, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Matt, described the conditions as “a complete whiteout.”
“It was very scary,” he said. “You couldn’t do anything but just go straight — no place to turn off.”
The TV station said crashes sent at least eight people to hospitals with minor injuries.
The victim, Edgar Gallardo, 47, was inside his house when the incident happened.
According to the Basilisa Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, the landslide was caused by heavy rains.
Residents living near Gallardo’s house have already been evacuated.
Retrieval operation for the victim is still ongoing.
Meanwhile, a security guard working for Wellex Mining in Tubajon was hurt after a portion of the mining site caved in on Wednesday morning.
Tubajon Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Benjiemen Vargas and Mayor Romeo Vargas went to the site to assess the incident.
MAGNITUDE 4.8 – RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=349691
Subject To Change
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 3564 km NE of Tokyo, Japan / pop: 8,336,599 / local time: 00:26:16.0 2013-12-26
4338 km NE of Pyongyang, North Korea / pop: 3,222,000 / local time: 00:26:16.0 2013-12-26
4344 km NE of Seoul, South Korea / pop: 10,349,312 / local time: 00:26:16.0 2013-12-26
MAGNITUDE 5.2 – FIJI REGION
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=349672
Subject To Change
Depth: 561 km
Distances: 388 km E of Suva, Fiji / pop: 77,366 / local time: 01:04:42.0 2013-12-26
349 km SE of Lambasa, Fiji / pop: 24,187 / local time: 01:04:42.0 2013-12-26
MAGNITUDE 4.9 – SOUTH OF AFRICA
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=349668
Subject To Change
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 2591 km S of Maseru, Lesotho / pop: 118,355 / local time: 13:50:42.0 2013-12-25
2938 km S of Mbabane, Swaziland / pop: 76,218 / local time: 13:50:42.0 2013-12-25
2987 km S of Pretoria, South Africa / pop: 1,619,438 / local time: 13:50:42.0 2013-12-25
Two major bridges at Canaries and Piaye have been washed away and these are bridges that have survived both of the before mentioned storms!! With the loss of these two bridges the Soufriere area has been totally cut off.
Vieux Fort has also been cut off as the major highway in the Anse Ger area which is near Micoud has been severed with a large section having been washed away.
The Hewanorra airport was flooded through the departure lounge and there is a rumor that there might be a section of the runway that was under cut and collapsed. If anyone can fly into the airport, it might not be possible to get to Castries until they can fix the road at Anse Ger.
The old concrete Taxi way that was built during the second world war and is presently used as the main highway into Vieux Fort has collapsed near the beach and is almost impassable.
The Bexon highway was also underwater for most of the night but is apparently passable as of this morning.
The electricity services is reporting that approximately 15% of the population is without power due to tripped fuses and collapsed poles. They cannot access many of these areas due to the bridge outages and land slides.
The water supply has also been affected due to blocked water intakes and damage to water mains.
This is in many ways just as serious as the damage that we sustained during Hurricane Thomas and will set back the reconstruction that was proceeding apace since the passage of that Hurricane…
Unfortunately this will not be a very merry Christmas for many around the island.
When the situation becomes clearer I will try to post updates.
***BE ALERT***
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