Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 28, 1993 TAG: 9312280130
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"People can freeze to death in this kind of weather," said Kelley Cronin, director of Boston's Emergency Shelter Commission, which opened city-run shelters Monday that normally are closed during the day. The wind chill made it feel like 15 below zero.
The cold forced cancellation of Monday night's Holidazzle parade in Minneapolis, part of a series of celebrations since Thanksgiving to draw shoppers downtown. The wind chill during Sunday night's parade was 11 below, and only a few thousand spectators turned out.
Shelters for the homeless in many cities were filled. Police in some cities gave homeless people rides to shelters. American Automobile Association chapters got thousands of calls for help with dead batteries.
At least one death was blamed on the cold. An 86-year-old woman died of exposure at Westfield, Ind., after she apparently slipped and fell while walking her dog Sunday, the county coroner said Monday.
Temperatures fell to record lows Monday morning from 30 below zero at Bismarck, N.D., to 9 below at Binghamton, N.Y., and 29 above at Melbourne, Fla., on the state's eastern coast, the National Weather Service said.
The small community of Embarrass, Minn., unofficially reported 35 below zero. That's about a dozen or so miles from Tower, where Sunday's low was 50 below.
New York state went to 37 below at Gouverneur and Canton. Hikers at Lake Placid were warned of wind chills down to minus 75, said Chrissy Ford, coordinator of the Adirondack High Peaks Information Center.
Ironically, on the icy Bering Strait, Nome, Alaska, warmed to a record high of 37 early Monday, the weather service said.
It's not just a brief cold snap for the Northeast.
"There really isn't much relief in sight, at least through the rest of the work week," said weather service meteorologist Charles Ross in Portland, Maine.
Temperatures in northern Maine fell to 17 below at Houlton, and state troopers said trucks were halted along major highways because their diesel fuel turned to gel.
Diesel trucks also froze up at Lowville, N.Y., where thermometers reached 29 below, said dairy farmer Dave Peck. But he added that the cold wasn't altogether bad. His 600 cows were producing more milk.
"They'll eat more during the cold to keep body temperature up. During the last two milkings, production was up."
by CNB