San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
BRUTALLY COLD WEATHER REACHES DEEP INTO LOWER U.S.
Some areas dealing with lack of water, freezing rain, frigid temperatures
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, Tenn., where residents were urged to boil water and some had no water at all after freezing temperatures broke water mains across the city. Temperatures weren’t expected to rise until after the weekend.
The bracing cold followed a week of storms blamed for at least 61 deaths around the U.S., many involving hypothermia or road accidents.
At the Four Way Grill in Memphis, owner Patrice Bates Thompson said the water problems have closed their soul food kitchen for days.
“This is our staple, and this is what basically drives the force of my family financially,” Thompson told Fox-13 Memphis. “We depend on business, and we have been at home.”
So many pipes broke in Memphis that water pressure fell throughout the city. Concerned about possible contamination, Memphis Light, Gas & Water urged its more than 400,000 customers to boil water for
drinking or teeth-brushing or use bottled supplies on Saturday while crews worked around the clock to make repairs.
“Our production and treatment of water is working well,” the utility said in an email. “We cannot give restoration estimates until all leaks are identified.”
The utility said more than 100 employees volunteered Saturday to identify breaks, and residents were urged to report leaks in the street, at homes and in unoccupied buildings.
Meanwhile, the Memphis City Council opened seven bottled water
distribution stations on Saturday, one in each council district. Two others were operating at fire stations. One had 300 cars lined up when it opened on Saturday, Shelby County Emergency Management Director Brenda Jones said in a telephone interview.
“You have people with absolutely no water, people with low water pressure, and you have the boil water advisory,” she said.
A huge swath of the U.S. was under wind chill advisories, from Montana into central Florida. It was particularly harsh in the Midwest. The wind made it feel like minus-16 degrees in Iowa City on Saturday, and overnight wind chills hovered around zero in Oklahoma City, where David Overholser sought shelter at the non-profit Homeless Alliance.
“Being 63 and from Florida originally, I don’t like cold. I can’t handle it,” Overholser told The Oklahoman. “It’s been very, very rough and painful and I just, you know, try to hang on one day, one hour at a time ... it’s definitely scary.”
Wind chills dipped to minus-20 degrees early Saturday in Vermont, where the Stowe Mountain Resort urged hardy skiers to “bust out all the stuff you need to hang on the mountain safely, take frequent warm-up breaks inside, and keep a close eye on each other for signs of frostbite.”
On the West Coast, more freezing rain was forecast Saturday in the Columbia River Gorge and the area was expected to remain near or below freezing through at least tonight. Trees and power lines already coated with ice could topple if they get more, the National Weather Service warned.
“Stay safe out there over the next several days as our region tries to thaw out,” the weather service said. “Chunks of falling ice will remain a hazard as well.”
The weather service forecast above-average temperatures across most of the country in the coming week.