Over 90 people have died because of bad weather in the US. Winter storms have been hitting the country hard for the past week.
At least 25 people died in Tennessee and 16 people died in Oregon after severe ice storms. Oregon is still under a state of emergency.
Many people in large areas of the country are still without electricity.
The cold and icy weather should get better in a few days.
According to CBS, 92 people have died because of the weather in the past week.
Many people have died in Tennessee and Oregon, but also in places like Mississippi, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington, Kentucky, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, and other areas.
Last Wednesday in Portland, Oregon, three people died from electric shock when strong winds knocked down a power line and it hit the car they were in. The baby in the car lived.
Other deaths are still being looked into, including the death of a person in a five-car crash in Kentucky and four in Illinois.
Five people, most likely without a home, died in Seattle in just four days, says the Associated Press.
The weather in Mississippi has caused officials to tell drivers to only drive if they really need to and to be careful of ice on the roads. The colleges and universities in the state have made students come back later from winter break because of the weather.
The number of people who have died in the state went up to 11 after three more deaths were reported on Sunday.
Mississippi officials are looking into whether people were told there might not be enough water because of the storm, and that’s why they put water in their bathtubs. The change made the water pressure go down for a little while and many people in Jackson couldn’t get water from their faucets. This city has had water problems for a long time.
Water problems are still happening in Tennessee. About 400,000 people have to boil their water because of broken pipes in Memphis. This is happening in almost 30 other areas too. The local utility fixed 41 big water pipes and over 4,000 smaller ones because of the cold weather.
The company said to use boiled or bottled water for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and preparing food until they say it’s okay to use tap water again. “It’s safe to use tap water for bathing and showering, just don’t drink it. ”
Restaurants and bars in the southern city of the US used bottled water to serve customers on Sunday. Some had to close or change their menus.
Many places in the US have their electricity back after the winter storm, but many people still don’t have power.
On Sunday evening, 45,000 people in Oregon didn’t have electricity. More power cuts happened in Pennsylvania, California, New Mexico and Indiana.
The National Weather Service says there will be an ice storm on Monday in some parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Driving will be very dangerous in many areas of the country on Monday.
Later, the snow will melt, and some weather experts say that warm air and rain might make some areas in the Midwest and north-eastern US flood.
By the end of the week, it may be hotter than usual in some eastern parts of the country.
Tag: winter
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Over 90 people killed following severe winter storms in the US
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California weather: Another winter storm as thousands left without power
As another storm bears down on the state, thousands of Californians are still without power following a weekend of torrential rain and flooding.
On Monday, there was a heavy rain, which only got worse on Tuesday, especially in the state’s northern and central regions.
Storms that have struck the state in quick succession have claimed the lives of at least 13 persons so far.
Parts of the East Coast are also currently under a winter storm watch.
Some counties in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut could see as much as 10in (25cm) of snow on Monday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
Further snowfall is also anticipated in western Wisconsin and much of Minnesota – where the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul have already recorded 80in of snow this winter, their eighth snowiest season on record.
California starts the week with its 11th “atmospheric river” storm since late December.
Atmospheric rivers are narrow bands of moisture that produce heavy rainfall and snow when they make landfall.
These weather systems occur when water evaporates into the air and is carried along by the wind, forming long currents that flow in the sky like rivers flow on land.
The NWS predicted “very heavy rainfall”, snowmelt in mountainous regions and strong winds, with the worst conditions “occurring late during the day Monday, continuing through the day on Tuesday”.
In addition to heavy rainfall, the San Francisco Bay Area could see wind gusts up to 40 to 50mph (64 to 80kph).
“Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks,” the weather service added. “Extensive street flooding and flooding of creeks and rivers is likely.”
Thousands were evacuated on Saturday from Pajaro, a low-income agricultural migrant worker community in northern California famous for its strawberry crop, after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding.
In Monterey County, first responders rescued about 200 people – most of those rescues happened near the Pajaro River, according to Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto.
Fearing floodwater may have contaminated wells with chemicals, officials told residents in the area not to drink or cook with tap water.
More than 9,500 residents across the state were still without power as of Monday morning.
Thirteen people have died since snowstorms hit California from late February.
Two of those deaths have so far been confirmed to be storm-related, while eight others are under investigation.
Twenty-two other deaths have been recorded amid the foul weather in the state since January.
A state of emergency has been issued in 40 of California’s 58 counties to support storm response.
Source: BBC
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Ukraine war: Germans struggling to cope with influx of Ukrainian refugees
Almost 1,000 people sleep in giant heated tents on an old airfield on Berlin’s outskirts. The German capital is struggling to house Ukraine’s refugees properly.
As winter deepens and Russia continues to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, authorities here are rushing to build more emergency shelters in preparation for the arrival of up to 10,000 more people.
According to the most recent figures, a million Ukrainians have fled to Germany since the beginning of the war.
This has brought back memories of 2015 and 2016, when a comparable number of people sought asylum in the United States.
Germany, as before, extended a warm welcome. However, there are growing concerns about how to best accommodate such a large population.
In Berlin, around 100 Ukrainians arrive every day at the city’s main reception centre for refugees which is sited in a terminal at a converted former airport.
Workers in brightly coloured tabards lead them past defunct baggage carousels to the old departure halls which are now filled with crowded trestle tables.
There’s food here, medical aid and a bed for a few nights.
It’s designed to be temporary; strangers sleep in bunks in shared cubicles or tents.
But many of the people here will stay longer; it’s getting harder to find permanent accommodation in a city where the rental market is under pressure, and sending people on to other parts of Germany is getting harder too.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Germany is now housing many refugees at Berlin’s former Tegel airport Operations manager Kleo Tümmler admits it’s a challenge: “We are built to take care of people for a few days. Sometimes they have to stay here for two weeks, maybe three weeks.”
Despite the logistical difficulties, there’s a relaxed atmosphere in the centre.
Ms Tümmler and her colleagues appear committed to making life as easy and comfortable as possible for the people here.
They’re trying to adapt to the needs of longer-term guests. They’ve bought washing machines, they’re trying to provide some entertainment, and they’re extending the educational facilities for the 300 children on site, some of whom are home-schooling via video link to their Ukrainian schools.
They have learnt, they say here, from the experience of 2015.
But their positivity is not mirrored elsewhere.
One politician from northwest Germany recently used an editorial in a national newspaper to warn that communities like his were “massively challenged” by numerous Ukrainian refugees as well as a growing influx of asylum seekers.
The number of people seeking asylum has indeed risen, fuelled largely by people from Syria and Afghanistan.
Getty ImagesI expect tens, if not hundreds of thousands more Ukrainian women and children… already more migrants are living in many communities than in the year of the 2015-16 refugee crisis
Frederik Paul said he was reminded of the atmosphere during the migrant crisis when an initially warm welcome gave way to a bitter national debate over how much support Germans could and should offer to those seeking asylum.
He echoed comments made earlier in the year by Martina Schweinsburg, a district councillor from Thuringia, who said her area had relied on private landlords to house Ukrainians – mainly women, children and elderly people at first – but were now reluctant to do so.
Turning over school gyms for emergency accommodation was, she said, something the public increasingly considered unacceptable.
“Our capacities are exhausted,” she said. “Our backs are against the wall.”
The mood is darkening; the authorities recorded 65 attacks on refugee accommodation so far this year, a significant increase on 2021.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, This hotel sheltering Ukrainian refugees was burned down in a suspected arson attack last month And a recent survey for the national broadcaster found that concerns about immigration had increased in the last year: 53% of those asked were concerned that too many people were coming to Germany, up by 11% from September 2021.
Those fears and that social division are exactly what Russia’s Vladimir Putin has sought to exploit in his latest campaign to render Ukraine uninhabitable and drive yet more of its citizens into Europe.
That will test the tolerance of this German government, which came to power with a far more liberal attitude towards refugees than its predecessor.
How this country, itself much changed by the experience of the migrant crisis, reacts will matter.
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Money-off energy scheme launches to avoid blackouts
As part of National Grid’s efforts to avoid blackouts, households will be offered discounts on their electricity bills if they reduce peak-time use on a few days during the winter.
The network operator has released information about the scheme, which it claims could save households up to £100.
Between November and March, there will be 12 “test” days to see how customers respond.
However, only homes with smart meters will be able to participate.
Only 14 million, less than half, of households in England, Scotland and Wales, where the scheme is being tested, have a smart electricity meter installed.
Customers taking part will be given 24 hours’ notice of a “test” day where they will be asked to reduce their peak-time electricity use if they can during a one-hour period identified by National Grid, likely to be between 16:00 and 19:00.
That could include delaying use of a tumble-dryer or washing machine, or cooking dinner in the microwave rather than the oven.
National Grid said it will pay energy suppliers, which will be required to sign up to the scheme to operate it for customers for a smart meter, £3 for every kilowatt-hour during the test periods.
What is a smart meter?
Smart meters replace your existing gas and electricity meters and measure the energy you use at home. The big difference is that they send this information directly to your supplier over wireless networks in real-time.
Suppliers say that this means you pay only for what you use, so bills are more accurate than estimated ones. It also means you can monitor your usage more closely and adjust your habits if you’re looking to save money.
But if you live in an area with weak signal, your meters might struggle to communicate with your supplier effectively.
Individual suppliers will decide how much customers will receive and whether the money is taken off bills, credited to accounts, or if there’s an option to withdraw the cash.
National Grid is testing the idea, which it calls its “Demand Flexibility Service”, at scale for the first time, to establish a system that can serve as an “insurance policy” if it needs to ease demand on the grid this winter.
Households have been warned of power cuts lasting up to three hours at a time if gas supplies run extremely low, and National Grid is hoping the new scheme can, along with other measures, prevent that happening.
The electricity network operator said the service had been approved by the UK’s energy regulator Ofgem, which meant electricity suppliers and providers could sign up and then advertise the scheme to customers.
It is understood many of the UK’s larger energy firms are looking to take part in the trial, after being consulted in recent months on how it would work.
The scheme is also open to businesses which could, for example, change production schedules or switch to batteries or generators at peak times.
Jake Rigg, director of corporate affairs at National Grid ESO, said by signing up people could “back Britain” as well as saving money and reducing carbon emissions.
“It’s not a big thing or a difficult thing to do, just remembering to do it 12 times this winter and get that money back, when we are all really struggling with energy bills and the cost of living generally,” he told the BBC.
“We can all do our little bit, we can shift demand out of that peak and help maintain security of supply throughout the winter.”
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, The scheme only applies to homes with smart meters. Octopus Energy has already announced it will participate. It operated a trial scheme with 100,000 customers earlier this year, offering a much smaller discount for people who shifted their energy use away from peak times.
It believes there will be more days on offer – 25 in total compared to 12 planned so far – for households to be given the chance to cut down on energy use as the UK goes through the winter.
National Grid said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had created “unprecedented turmoil and volatility” in the energy markets in recent months.
Gas flows from Russia to Europe have been disrupted since its invasion of Ukraine, leaving countries scrambling for alternative supplies, which could have a knock-on effect on Britain.
The UK is heavily reliant on gas to produce electricity, with gas-fired power stations generating more than 40% of the country’s electricity.
The UK also imports electricity from continental Europe.
National Grid’s central view remains that there will be enough energy to provide Britain with similar levels of electricity to previous winters.
It said its service is aiming to save two gigawatts of electricity, which is enough to power about one million homes.
The company has also put coal-fired power stations on standby in case they are required to boost energy generation.
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Cost of living: Measures to assist poorest in combating fuel poverty this winter £14 billion short, according to campaigners
Cold homes, according to health activists, might aggravate lung and breathing problems, while one poverty action group claims the country is on poverty’s “cliff edge”.
Campaigners have warned that unless a fresh £14 billion package of emergency relief is provided, about seven million homes in the UK will face catastrophic fuel poverty.
The Warm This Winter pressure group says despite the Energy Price Guarantee, the £400 energy bills payment, and other support already announced, much more help will be needed to prevent the “severe health impacts of living in cold, damp homes crippling the NHS and causing excess winter deaths”.
The group is calling for urgent additional assistance for the most vulnerable.
Financially, it is urging for a third cost of living payment of £325 for those on income-linked benefits to be paid on 1 December.
And chief among the non-financial asks is an immediate suspension of all forced transfers of households onto more expensive pre-payment meters, whether by court warrant or remotely via smart meters.
Warm This Winter is also asking for a further £150 to be given in disability benefits, the restoration of the £20 Universal Credit uplift, increasing the energy bill support payments for people who do not have a mains gas connection, and ensuring all households who received the Warm Homes Discount last winter can access a £150 rebate this winter.
Even including the Energy Price Guarantee, the End Fuel Poverty Coalition calculates the unit cost of gas has increased by between 153% and 165% since winter 2021, while the unit cost of electricity has increased by 63-68%.
‘Extremely concerned’
Sarah Woolnough, CEO of research and campaigning charity Asthma + Lung UK, said with millions of homes on the verge of fuel poverty, they were “extremely concerned the nation’s lung health will rapidly deteriorate”.
“If people cannot afford to heat their homes, they may be forced to live in freezing homes where cold and flu viruses can thrive,” she said.
“We know people with lung conditions are already struggling with price hikes – one in five we surveyed said they’d had an asthma attack because of changes they’d made to their lives in response to the cost of living crisis, such as skipping meals, not picking up prescriptions, and using mains-powered medical machinery less.
“Things will only get worse when temperatures plummet and colds and viruses ramp up.”
The government introduced the energy price guarantee to help. It limits the amount a household can be charged per unit of gas or electricity to help ease the damage to family finances caused by the wider cost of living crisis.
It means the taxpayer will pay the difference between the set unit cost and any higher unit cost.
It also introduced the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme, administered by energy suppliers, and paid over the course of six months starting in October, to ensure consumers receive financial support throughout the winter months.
All households in England, Scotland, and Wales are eligible.
But Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said the support now would only create a “cliff edge in April 2023” when the payouts stopped.
“This will result in the number of households in fuel poverty rising to almost eight million. The situation will be made worse if benefits are not uprated by inflation and if prescription charges increase,” he warned.
It comes after the National Grid’s Electricity System Operator said last week the UK could face power cuts in the “unlikely” event supplies of gas fall short of demand.
Free boiler repairs
Warm this Winter is a new campaign demanding the government act now to help tackle rising energy bills this winter and to ensure energy is affordable for everyone in the future.
It is supported by leading anti-poverty and environmental organisations, including Save the Children, WWF, and the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
Other measures it has suggested the government could consider for supporting households to stay warm this winter, include introducing a public information campaign, giving guidance to local authorities on best practices in using the Household Support Fund to deliver free boiler repairs, and working with charities and councils to increase the provision of energy advice.
Working with landlords, the government could also, it says, support tenants in fuel poverty by introducing a social rent cap and a private sector rent freeze.
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Souring energy prices: I will ‘freeze’ this winter to keep daughter alive
A mother says she will be forced to freeze this winter after her energy bill surged to £530 a month – the majority of which is used on life-saving equipment for her disabled daughter.
Carolynne Hunter, from Tillicoultry in Scotland, told Sky News she is “exhausted and scared” about the winter ahead.
Her 12-year-old daughter, Freya, requires round-the-clock intensive care at home. She is oxygen-dependent and requires a track and hoist, a powerchair, an electric bed, and an electric bath.
She also requires two-bed linen changes and multiple clothing changes per day, generating a significant amount of laundry that all needs to be washed and dried.
Freya is unable to regulate her own body temperature, so requires constant heating in the winter.
Ms Hunter has seen her bill more than double since March – from £225 a month to £530. This winter she will turn off the heating in every room except Freya’s – and said she and her other daughter will “freeze”.
🗣️”I don’t know how I’m going to afford it. I’m worried and anxious.”@CazMac38 is an unpaid intensive carer who has historically lived in fuel poverty to support Freya’s energy needs.
Hear their story 👇 #ChallengePoverty #TurnTheTide@trussliz @NicolaSturgeon @ElenaWhitham pic.twitter.com/fHBPsOb9m9
— SASW (@ScotsSW) October 4, 2022
But, she told Sky News, she has no choice if she wants to keep her daughter alive.
“The staff who support Freya also need heating, so I have to pay for them to be warm.
“It’s causing friction between me and them as I have to keep telling them to turn off unnecessary taps and heating. They’re not my staff, they’re NHS staff.”
She added: “I pay for them to be warm – they can’t freeze all night, but I can. I don’t matter, do I?”
Ms Hunter is calling on energy companies to offer discounted rates to people living with disabilities, who require energy to keep them alive.
“All I am thinking about at the moment is how to keep Freya alive,” she said.
She was referred to Citizen’s Advice for a £49 voucher, but she said this won’t even touch the sides of her £6,000 annual energy bill.
The fear and stress are taking their toll and Ms Hunter said she fears she is heading towards a stroke: “I am angry and fighting all the time.”
