(NewsNation) — Americans heading home after the holidays are having to contend with winter storms that have left the East Coast under snow and parts of southern California underwater.
As of Saturday morning, nearly 500 flights were delayed and more than 250 cancelled, according to FlightAware’s aptly named MiseryMap. The Northeast was battered by a major snowstorm overnight, which prompted governors of both New York and New Jersey to issue states of emergency for large swaths of their states on Friday. With nearly a foot of snow forecasted for parts of the region, the most some have seen since 2022, officials across the Northeast are encouraging people to stay home, if possible.
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Many Americans still need to get home, and the highways aren’t faring much better than the airports. Road crews in the region are working hard to clear snow for drivers, with New York deploying more than 1,600 large plows.
Meanwhile, over on the West Coast, emergency officials are reporting that at least four people have died because of major storms in the region. On Friday, five people were injured after a falling boulder triggered a two-car crash on a highway in San Bernardino, California. They are all expected to recover. The National Weather Service says the worst is over, but Californians aren’t out of the woods just yet.
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One of the biggest problems in the region has been the rain. California typically doesn’t see much more than an inch of rain at most this time of year, but parts of the state got as much as eight inches of rainfall over the last few days. The rainfall creates serious mudslide concerns, especially in areas affected by intense wildfires at the start of this year. Some homes in the San Gabriel Mountains are reportedly buried under “several feet” of mud…