WASHINGTON: Dreams of a white Christmas have turned into a nightmare in the northeastern US city of Erie after a storm dumped a record-breaking five feet of snow in a 48-hour period, forcing officials to declare an emergency.
Residents took to social media to post stunning photos of the whiteout, with meteorologists attributing the 58 inches of snow that fell over Christmas Day, Monday, to 5pm on Tuesday to icy winds blowing over the adjoining Lake Erie, one of North America’s Great Lakes.
More snow was expected at a rate of up to an inch or two per hour as residents were warned to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary and pack emergency kits including tow ropes, flashlights, shovels and flares for essential travel.
Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf announced in a statement that the state national guard was “providing high clearance all terrain military vehicles to aid local agencies with medical emergency and law enforcement response.”
According to data from the National Weather Service, the 34 inches of snow that fell on Dec. 25 was the highest the city had ever recorded, eclipsing the previous high of 20 inches on Nov. 22, 1956.
The two-day snowfall of 58 inches, which was still ongoing, also surpassed a previous state record of 44 inches set in Morgantown on March 20-12, 1958.
“The crews are out, but quite simply they can’t keep up with the amount of snow that’s falling,” said Matt Exley, a local emergency official on a Facebook live post.
Erie meanwhile has received 97 inches of snow in December, making it the snowiest month in the city’s history, which usually averages about 100 inches of snow in an entire season.
Residents posted pictures reminiscent of a bleak polar landscape, dubbing the phenomenon #Snowmageddon on Twitter.
Vehicles were buried and visibility was limited in some areas to just a few feet.
By Tuesday night the temperature had plunged to 14 Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius), with the lake-effect snow warning forecast to continue through Wednesday, potentially adding an additional five to 10 inches of snowfall.
Record-breaking storm hits US lakeside city
Record-breaking storm hits US lakeside city
UN urges scam center clampdown amid ‘staggering’ abuses
- The new update said satellite imagery and ground reports showed that nearly three-quarters of the scam operations were in the Mekong region and had spread to some Pacific island countries, South Asia, West Africa, and the Americas
GENEVA: The UN has called on governments to clamp down on scam centers, which have mushroomed in Southeast Asia, with hundreds of thousands of people trafficked into forced labor.
The UN human rights office released a report documenting torture, sexual abuse, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement, and other abuses.
“The litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heartbreaking,” said UN rights chief Volker Turk, urging governments to act against corruption that is “deeply entrenched in such lucrative scamming operations, and to prosecute the criminal syndicates behind them.”
His office had said in a 2023 report that hundreds of thousands of people were forced to work in the centers, which other investigations have found are responsible for billions of dollars of online fraud.
The new update said satellite imagery and ground reports showed that nearly three-quarters of the scam operations were in the Mekong region and had spread to some Pacific island countries, South Asia, West Africa, and the Americas.
Based on accounts from victims, police, and civil society groups, the report said forced laborers were held in immense compounds resembling self-contained towns, made up of heavily fortified multi-story buildings with barbed wire-topped walls and armed guards.
“The treatment endured by individuals within the context of scam operations is alarming,” the report said.
