Winter hits U.S. from coast to coast with deep freeze, record snow

Reporting from Portland, Maine —  The glow of a white Christmas is long gone. Now it’s just winter across much of the Midwest and East Coast, where bitter temperatures and snow squalls have been blamed for a handful of deaths and canceled a long list of New Year’s celebrations.

Already winter-weary parts of the nation are dealing with mounting weather-related headaches, including highway pileups, frozen pipes and a rash of car thefts.

Icy roads in central Michigan caused more 30 crashes on highways near Flint on Friday morning. Coastal South Carolina saw a rare bout of freezing rain and drizzle on Friday that forced bridges from Charleston to Myrtle Beach to shut down for de-icing.

Police in the Cincinnati area say a half-dozen cars have been stolen in recent days after being left running unattended by owners trying to warm them up. Cincinnati police warned on Twitter that leaving your car running means “the only person who will be warm is the thief who stole your car.”

More snow is on the way in Erie, Pa., where 65 inches have fallen since Christmas Eve. Now parts of the surrounding county could get up to 16 inches on top of that by Sunday.

A call center set up to help people dig out has been overwhelmed. “The phones have been ringing off the hook,” Josh Jaeger, a coordinator for the center, told the Erie Times-News.

Cleanup continued inside Michigan State University’s basketball arena after a frozen water pipe burst and flooded a hallway, although the mess wasn’t expected to interrupt a game Friday.

Several deaths have been linked to the wintry weather during the last week.

In South Dakota, an 83-year-old woman died from exposure to the cold after she crashed her car and got out to look for help. Search crews found her body in a ditch Sunday. Three people were found dead in a canal along Lake Erie this week after their car slid off an icy road.

The National Weather Service predicts another blast of arctic air will chill much of the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. through the weekend and into 2018.

Temperatures could fall into the single digits as far south as Oklahoma and sink to zero or below Friday night in Nebraska and Iowa and remain there for at least three days.

“It’s pretty unusual to get that long of a streak where it’s completely below zero,” said Iowa’s state climatologist Harry Hillaker. “Historically, that doesn’t happen very often in Des Moines.”

The Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies were bracing for storms that forecasters warned could bring several feet of mountain snow and freezing rain.

With the bitter cold expected to stick around, many New Year’s Eve plans are being scuttled.

Shore towns in New Jersey canceled plans for polar bear plunges in the Atlantic Ocean, and organizers pulled the plug on the annual light bulb drop in Sunbury, Pa.

Fireworks shows have been called off in Omaha, Neb., and at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. And New York’s Coney Island says it will be too cold for free rides on the Wonder Wheel and Thunderbolt roller coaster.

Pet owners were urged to protect their animals from the cold. Wild animals weren’t immune from the dangers of winter either.

In Ohio, wildlife officers mulled how to rescue a deer whose legs were stuck in an ice-covered river. They managed to lasso the deer with a rope and pull it to shore Friday, but they later had to euthanize the injured animal.

UPDATES:

1:20 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with information about weather affecting the Plains and Pacific Northwest.

This article was originally published at 7:50 a.m.