BOSTON — Even by New England standards, this winter cold is brutal.
The storm that killed several people in the Midwest — including a 12-year-old girl who died when a snow fort collapsed — left a trail of dangerously cold weather in the Northeast.
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo declared a state of emergency in Newport County overnight and activated the National Guard, after National Grid cut gas service to more than 7,000 residents.
“If you are impacted by the National Grid gas outages in Newport and lack heat, please find alternate shelter,” she said on Twitter. “Tonight, will be one of the coldest nights of the year — it’s not safe to be in your home without heat.”
In a message on its website, National Grid said it was “experiencing a low gas pressure situation” on Aquidneck Island, which is largely the city of Newport.
Raimondo said it may take more than a week for the company to restore service to all customers.
The freezing temperatures broke records in parts of New England.
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Boston only reached a high of 10 degrees and the temperature only climbed to a high of 1 degree in Worcester, Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service Boston.
Earlier on Monday, Worcester tied its record low temperature at negative 6 degrees. And frigid air “will continue to overspread New England today and tonight,” the National Weather Service’s Boston office said Monday.
Parts of New England will remain under a wind chill advisory through Wednesday morning as temperatures could feel like negative 5 to negative 20 degrees.
“Temperatures are going to moderate to be more average for this time of year. However, another big cold snap is going to move in for the weekend,” said CNN meteorologist Michael Guy. “The waves of cold air will continue for the next two weeks.”
Monday’s deep freeze contributed to the hundreds of delayed or canceled flights Monday at Boston Logan International Airport, said Jennifer Mehigan, spokeswoman for Massachusetts Port Authority.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency encouraged residents to keep pets indoors, limit time outside, watch for signs of frostbite, check on neighbors and use alternative heat sources safely.
Swaths of New York are under a wind advisory until early Tuesday, with wind gusts expected to reach 50 mph, the National Weather Service’s New York City office said.
“Temperatures in the low single digits and strong winds are combining for dangerous, life-threatening wind chills,” the National Weather Service’s Albany office said.
With the wind chill, the temperature dipped to negative 18 degrees in Albany and negative 7 degrees in Poughkeepsie, the NWS Albany said.
The cold temperatures even froze parts of Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada.
CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said a secondary blast of cold air expected this weekend “has staying power.”
It “could linger up to around the time for Super Bowl Sunday (February 3),” he said.
Girl dies after playing in a snowbank
The victims killed in the storm include a 12-year-old girl in llinois who died after a snowbank collapsed on top of her on Sunday, police said.
She had been playing with a 9-year-old girl outside a church when the fort they built collapsed on them, trapping them under the snow, Arlington police said. The 9-year-old girl was hospitalized and treated for hypothermia and is being held in the hospital for observation.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, two men died shortly after they were removing snow, CNN affiliate WITI reported.
A 59-year-old man who was shoveling snow outside his home Sunday died, WITI reported. And a 91-year-old man who had used a snowblower was later found dead in his home, according to WITI.
In Middletown, Connecticut, a subcontractor for New England energy provider Eversource was finishing up repairs when a tree fell on top of him, killing him Sunday.
And in Missouri, a 30-year-old man died after losing control of his vehicle on a snow-covered road and driving into the path of another car.
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