MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Arctic weather brought more misery to much of the U.S. on Saturday, especially for people unaccustomed to such bitter cold in places like Memphis, Tennessee, where residents were urged to boil water and some had no water. Not at all after freezing temperatures caused water pipes to break across the city. Temperatures are not expected to rise until after the weekend.
At Four Way Grill in Memphis, owner Patrice Bates Thompson said water problems shut down their soul-feeding kitchen for days.
“This is our staple, this is what keeps my family strong financially. We're business-based, and we've been home,” Thompson told Fox-13 Memphis.
So many pipes broke in Memphis that water pressure dropped throughout the city. Fearing potential contamination, Memphis Light, Gas & Water urged its more than 400,000 customers to boil water to drink, brush teeth or use bottled supplies on Saturday while crews worked around the clock to make repairs.
Political cartoon
“Our production and water treatment are working well,” the facility said in an email. “We cannot give restoration estimates until all leaks are identified.”
The authority said that more than 100 employees volunteered on Saturday to set rest periods, and residents were urged to report leaks in streets, homes and unoccupied buildings.
Without water since Thursday morning, Pamela Wells visited on Saturday with a worker and asked if there was a leak.
“My husband said, 'How can we have a leak if we don't have any water?'” she said.
Wells said they filled the bathtub with water to flush the toilets when they noticed the pressure dropping. For everything else, they were using dwindling supplies of bottled water until their street became passable on Saturday and their friends brought a new supply.
“It was a struggle,” she said, recalling how they lost water for 10 days in December 2022. “You don’t know how long the water outage will last.”
Meanwhile, the Memphis City Council opened seven bottled water distribution stations on Saturday, one in each council district. Two others worked in fire stations. One of them had 300 cars when it opened Saturday, Shelby County Emergency Management Director Brenda Jones said in a phone interview.
“You have people who have no water at all, people with low water pressure, and you have the advice to boil water,” she said.
A large area of the United States was under wind chill warnings, from Montana to central Florida. It was especially harsh in the Midwest. Winds brought the temperature to 16 degrees below zero (minus 26 degrees Celsius) in Iowa City on Saturday, and overnight wind chills ranged around zero in Oklahoma City, where David Overholser took shelter with the nonprofit Homeless Alliance.
“Being 63 years old and originally from Florida, I don't like the cold. I can't handle it,” Overholser told The Oklahoman. “It's been very difficult and painful, and I'm just, you know, trying to make it through the day.” “One, for one hour at a time…it's definitely scary.”
Wind temperatures dropped to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 28 degrees Celsius) early Saturday in Vermont, where Stowe Mountain Resort urged strong skiers to “remove all items you need to safely hang on the mountain, and take frequent warm-up breaks indoors.” And keep a close eye on each other for signs of frostbite.
Ravens fans unaccustomed to such cold in Baltimore braced for near-zero wind chills (minus 17 degrees Celsius) for Saturday's playoff game against the Houston Texans, but the weekend weather was business as usual in Buffalo, with the Bills calling for more shovels. To finish clearing snow from the stands before Sunday's big game. Highmark Stadium has been choked by five feet of lake-effect snow in five days.
Snow diminished in the Northeast after covering a large area including Washington and New York City. In New York, relief organizations distributed food and clothing near an elementary school on Saturday to migrants who wore thick coats and knit hats to ward off the freezing temperatures.
More snow was coming to West Virginia, where the weather service forecast up to another 4 inches (10 centimeters) on Saturday, along with winds of up to 40 mph (64 km/h), bringing a drop in temperatures. Wind temperature to 20 below zero (minus 29 degrees Celsius).
More lake snow fell on northwest Indiana Friday into Saturday, creating near-whiteout conditions near Lake Michigan and making the busy interstate corridor in and out of Chicago dangerous.
“We're kind of taking a chance, rolling the dice,” Frank Finney told WBBM-TV. Vinnie and his family were traveling on Interstate 94 through Michigan City to LaPorte, Indiana.
Bob Johnson, chief deputy for the Marshall County Sheriff's Office, said Tennessee alone recorded 26 deaths, including a 25-year-old man who was found dead on the floor of a mobile home in Lewisburg after the heater overturned and stopped working.
“There was ice on the walls there,” Johnson said.
On the West Coast, more freezing rain is expected Saturday in the Columbia River Gorge, and the area is expected to remain near or below freezing through at least Sunday night. The National Weather Service warned that trees and power lines already covered in ice could collapse if more falls.
“Stay safe out there over the next few days as our area tries to thaw,” the weather service said. “Falling ice chunks will still pose a hazard as well.”
Thousands have been without power since last weekend in parts of Oregon's Willamette Valley due to storm damage. Despite the work of repair crews, about 25,000 customers were without power in Oregon on Saturday, according to poweroutage.us.
The Meteorological Authority expects temperatures to be higher than average in most parts of the country during the next week. At the same time, not everyone hated the white stuff.
“It's fun right now,” Michigan City resident Andrew Smith told WBBM-TV. “We've never had this much snow in one minute, and it hasn't been a snowy Christmas, so it's fun to do it. I can play with the kids, make snowballs, make a snowman.”
Associated Press contributors include Travis Lawler in Nashville, Tennessee; Lisa Rathke in Marshfield, Vermont; Corey Williams in Detroit; Ken Miller in Edmond, Oklahoma; And Ron Todd in Philadelphia.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
