US bomb cyclone: At least 50 dead as North America gripped by devastating winter storm
At least 50 deaths have been linked to a severe storm that continues to batter the US and Canada.
The US has recorded 46 of the deaths, with a further four dead after a bus rolled over on icy roads in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Of the US deaths, 18 are from the state of New York, where the city of Buffalo has been hit hard by the blizzard, its numbing cold and heavy “lake-effect” snow – the result of frigid air moving over warmer lake waters.
Cheektowaga, New York. Pic: AP
‘Not the Christmas any of us hoped for’
The National Weather Service said that nearly four feet of snow fell at Buffalo’s airport by Sunday, and that snow was falling at the rate of two to three inches an hour south of the city.
The region’s storm victims include people found stranded in cars, left freezing in white-out conditions while would-be rescuers struggled against the weather to help.
New York governor Kathy Hochul had said during the weekend that many of the state’s ambulances and fire trucks were themselves stuck in the snow.
Buffalo police department posted a plea online seeking snow mobile owners to help with search and rescue efforts.
Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said: “This is not the Christmas any of us hoped for nor expected.”
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Buffalo region in Amherst, New York
More than 55 million still under weather alerts
At its worst, as many as 1.8 million properties were without power in the US, with thousands of flights cancelled and delayed.
But the number of homes without power is now around 150,000, although more than 55 million Americans remained under wind chill alerts on Sunday.
In Canada, at least 140,000 homes are without electricity, most of them in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
Four people were killed on Christmas Eve after a bus rolled over in icy conditions on Highway 97C near Loon Lake, about 200 miles east of Vancouver.
The local healthcare authority – Interior Health – told Canada’s CBC that 52 people were sent to hospital and 36 needed further treatment.
By early afternoon on Christmas Day, eight people remained in hospital, two of them in a serious condition.
Ottawa, Canada. Pic: AP
Temperatures could fall as low as -43C
Canada’s meteorological agency said that temperatures would remain low in many parts of the country this week.
Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories is expected to fall to -28C (-18F) overnight but, with wind chill factored in, this could be as low as -43C (-45F), bringing the risk of frostbite in just minutes.
Whitehorse, in Canada’s Yukon territory, was expected to fall to -30C (-22F) with wind chill factored in.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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