1 Officials Confirm Massive Winter Storm Kills 57
Punishing weather conditions that are blanketing much of the country have killed at least 57 people, including 27 in western New York's Erie County, according to officials. That includes Buffalo. Extremely low temperatures and snowfall have mangled traffic and left people barricaded inside their homes. Much of the death toll itself is related to heart problems people develop while shoveling snow as well as others dying in their cars, according to the Erie County medical examiner. This blizzard is being called a “once-in-a-generation” storm and stretches from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the Mexican border. Deaths were recorded in 12 states: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin. The ferocity of the storm is unlike anything people are used to – and that goes for people who are accustom to terrible winter weather. County Executive Mark Poloncarz says the snow is falling “with a vengeance," and is accumulating up 2 feet in northern parts of New York, according to the National Weather Service.
2 DOT Investigates Southwest Airlines' Massive Cancellations
So many Southwest Airlines flights have been cancelled that the Department of Transportation is looking into their “unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service,” as well as investigating the airline’s compliance with their own customer service plan. Southwest put the kibosh on about 2020 of its 2,886 flights yesterday and around 1440 of its 2,400 planned for today, according to the Flight Aware website. As for hold ups, the airline accounted for a major chunk of yesterday’s 8200 delays. What does Southwest have to say about this? Officials issued a statement apologizing for the chaos. “With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable," Southwest officials said. “We are working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption by re-balancing the airline and repositioning crews and our fleet.” They ended the statement saying their apologies are “just the beginning.”
3 Migrants Sent To DC On Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve saw busloads of migrants being dropped off in front of Vice President Harris' Washington, DC residence. Video shows them being left on the street outside the Naval Observatory Saturday in below-freezing temperatures, many of them clutching blankets around their shoulders. The migrants were reportedly bused to the area by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in his latest move to send people crossing the southern border to Democrat-led cities. Abbott went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” saying of Harris, “She’s the border czar, and we felt that if she won’t come down to see the border, if President [Joe] Biden will not come down and see the border, we will make sure they see it firsthand.” The group of more than 110 migrants were eventually taken to a church by a local aid group. The White House is denouncing the move . On Monday, a spokesman for the Biden administration called it a "cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt." This comes after the Supreme Court temporarily stopped the expiration of Title 42 last week, which allows border officials to turn away asylum seekers for public health concerns.