US residents blighted by blizzards

Vietnam News.Net
Saturday 6th February, 2010

The US east coast was paralysed by a huge blizzard on Saturday, after thick snow was dumped on roads and power lines from eastern Indiana into Pennsylvania and through Maryland as far south as North Carolina.

The blizzard stretched thousands of miles with winds gusting at almost 90 kilometres-an-hour, causing drivers to come to a standstill on dangerous highways.

Many places had accumulated more than 60 centimetres of snow by Saturday, with trees toppling onto power lines and traffic piling up on slippery roads.

Ten inches of snow covered the White House in Washington.

Power cuts in and around Washington have left 230,000 people without electricity.

Road and air traffic has come to a standstill.

The airports of Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia have closed.

Hospitals in the affected areas have called on owners of four-wheel drive vehicles to drive doctors and nurses to work.

Meteorologists say they haven’t seen this much snow since 1922. In some places 80 centimetres of snow has fallen. The snowstorm is not over but has eased a little.


The president's motorcade was slowed down by the snow falls as he made his way through empty Washington streets to give a speech to his Democratic Party.

A record-breaking snowfall has been predicted for many areas of the US over the rest of the weekend.

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