Warnings issued as cold snap engulfs much of country
PORTLAND, Maine — Plunging temperatures across half the country Thursday underscored a stark reality for low-income Americans who rely on heating aid: Their dollars aren’t going to go as far this winter because of rising energy costs.
Forecasters warned people to be wary of hypothermia and frostbite from an arctic blast that’s gripping a large swath from the Midwest to the Northeast, where the temperature, without the wind chill factored in, dipped to minus 32 Thursday morning in Watertown, N.Y.
Even before the cold snap, the Department of Energy projected that heating costs were going to track upward this winter, and many people are keeping a wary eye on their fuel tanks to ensure they don’t run out.
The burden caused by higher prices and higher energy usage is felt by all Americans, especially those who struggle to stay warm.
Elizabeth Parker, 88, of Sanford, Maine, said she lives in fear of running out of heating fuel and remains vigilant in monitoring the gauge outside her trailer. She said she is allowed to request a fuel delivery thanks to federal aid, but only when her gauge dips to oneeighth of a tank.
“I couldn’t get along without it,” said Parker, who lives with her 93-year-old husband, Robert Parker, along with a cat, a dog and four birds.
Despite the cold, there was some good news for recipients of federal aid from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. President Trump released nearly $3 billion, or roughly 90 percent, of the funding in October after previously trying to eliminate the program.
Prolonged, dangerous cold weather this week has sent advocates for the homeless scrambling to get people off the streets and to bring in extra beds for them. Warming centers also were set up in some locations. Frozen pipes and dead car batteries added to the misery across the region.
In western New York and Erie, Pa., residents were still cleaning up from massive snowfall. Firefighters had to use a bucket loader to rescue someone trapped in her home in Lorraine, N.Y.
In Ohio, a dog was found frozen solid on the porch of a house in Toledo, and a third body was recovered near a car that slid off an icy road and flipped into a canal days earlier in the city of Oregon.
On Thursday, cold weather records were set from Arkansas to Maine, and the cold air will linger through the weekend, reaching as far south as Texas and the Florida Panhandle through the weekend.
In New Hampshire, the cold set a record for the day of minus 34 atop the Northeast’s highest peak, Mount Washington.
In the Midwest, temperatures in Minneapolis aren’t expected to top zero this weekend, and it likely will be in the teens when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve in New York City.