It is safe to say that if you live anywhere between south Florida and California, you were spared from the subfreezing temperatures. States in the Northern region closer to the north pole and parts of the Midwest were greeted by the worst polar vortex to occur since 2014. With subfreezing temperatures reaching – 23 degrees (Chicago, Illinois ), state officials had to let their residents know not to go outside their homes and only do so if they had an emergency. However, even then, streets and sidewalks were both submerged in snow making it impossible for anyone to leave their homes.
On twitter, if you were looking under the hashtag Polar Vortex, you might have seen the famous video of a pot of boiling hot water thrown out in the air. Which at first, for us Floridians, might seem cool, something we will never be able to do (unless we move out of Florida of course), but then after watching so many, the spark was gone. But, if you kept on going deeper into the vortex hashtag then you probably saw some videos and pictures that left you in awe. Images of freezing ponds, lakes, and ocean, as well as videos taken from the interior part of people’s homes, showing their frozen door/ doorknobs. It appeared to be like a clip from an end of the world movie. Something off Roland Emmerich’s movie, “The Day After Tomorrow.” (Yes, the one with Jake Gyllenhaal and Emmy Rossum.) Looking at those images and videos it was like watching the movie unfold in front of you. It left you thinking, “are we close to another Ice Age? What will happen in the next polar vortex?”
Due to the extremity of the blistering cold weather, various busy airports had to cancel flights coming and leaving the state. Just in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport over 1,400 flights were canceled. No plane was descending or ascending the turnpike due to the severe weather forecast. A total number of 2,000 flights were canceled because of the dangers of flying in that weather. Schools throughout the Midwest and northern part of America were closed as well.
Zoo’s being affected by the polar vortex had to animals find their animals a safe and warm place to wait it out. According to the ChicagoTribune news, “Both the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Brookfield Zoo say they will allow their polar bears to remain outside during the worst of the chill (they’ll still have access to heated spaces indoors).” But what did that mean for stray animals? (No news on that yet.) There have been several reports saying that people have left their pets outside, but there is no tally so far saying if any have died. The only death toll being calculated thus far is civilian deaths.
As the temperatures steadily rise back to normal weather, the number of deaths are being calculated. The number, which can change as the search goes on, of deaths, so far is at 21 people.