At least 59 deaths have been linked to a strong storm that continues to batter the US and Canada.
The United States has reported 55 fatalities, with four more dead after a bus overturned on icy roads in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Of the US deaths, 25 are from Erie County in New York State, where the city of Buffalo has been hit hard by the blizzard, with its numbing cold and heavy snow “in effect lake,” the result of cold air moving over warmer. lake waters
“Not the Christmas that none of us expected”
The National Weather Service said nearly four feet of snow fell at the Buffalo airport on Sunday, and snow was falling at a rate of two to three inches per hour south of the city.
Victims of the region’s storm included people found stranded in cars, frozen in whiteout conditions as would-be rescuers raced against the clock to help.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had said over the weekend that many ambulances and fire trucks in the state were stuck in the snow.
The Buffalo Police Department posted an online petition asking snowmobile owners to help with search and rescue efforts.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said, “This is not the Christmas that any of us expected or expected.”
Read more: What is a bomb cyclone? In pictures: America caught in freeze Life on the road as freezing conditions hit New York state
Image: Buffalo region in Amherst, New York
More than 55 million are still under weather warnings
At its worst, up to 1.8 million properties were without power in the US, with thousands of flights canceled and delayed.
But the number of homes without power is now around 150,000, even as more than 55 million Americans remained under wind chill warnings on Sunday.
In Canada, at least 140,000 homes are without power, most in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
Four people died on Christmas Eve after a bus overturned in icy conditions on Highway 97C near Loon Lake, about 200 miles east of Vancouver.
The local health authority, Interior Health, told Canada’s CBC that 52 people were sent to hospital and 36 needed additional treatment.
As of early afternoon on Christmas Day, eight people remained in hospital, two of them in a serious condition.
Image: Ottawa, Canada. Image: AP
Temperatures could drop to -43ºC
Canada’s weather agency said temperatures would remain low in many parts of the country this week.
Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories is expected to drop to -28°C (-18°F) overnight, but with the wind chill it could be as low as -43°C (-45° F), with the risk of freezing in a few minutes.
Whitehorse, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, was expected to drop to -30°C (-22°F) with wind chill included.