Polar vortex freezes US Midwest; schools, postal services shut down as authorities struggle to provide shelter to homeless
Winter’s sharpest bite in years moved past painful into life-threatening territory, prompting officials throughout the Midwest in the US to take extraordinary measures to protect the homeless as the chill of the polar vortex froze a huge chunk of the region.
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Winter’s sharpest bite in years moved past painful into life-threatening territory, prompting officials throughout the US Midwest to take extraordinary measures to protect the homeless and other vulnerable people from the bitter cold, including turning some city buses into mobile warming shelters in Chicago. Reuters
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At least four deaths were linked to the weather system by Wednesday. Ice is seen on the side of the Great Falls National Historic Park in Paterson New Jersey. AP
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Minneapolis charitable groups that operate warming places and shelters expanded hours and capacity, and ambulance crews handled all outside calls as being potentially life-threatening. AP
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The cold snap followed a snowstorm and even more snow squalls are expected in the Midwest. Reuters
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Hundreds of public schools from North Dakota to Missouri to Michigan cancelled classes Tuesday, and some on Wednesday as well. Several large universities also remained closed. AFP
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Many people on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas live in homes that are decades old and in disrepair, or in emergency government housing left over from southern disasters such as hurricanes. Reuters
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The polar vortex is a mass of very cold air that typically sits right on the North Pole and tends to be restricted to the region by the jet stream, which normally keeps this cold air in the Arctic. But when the jet stream wavers, or weakens, the chill can spill over to the countries south of the Pole. Reuters/National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, US
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