Death toll tops 60 across U.S. as arctic blast leaves dangerous icy conditions

via yahoo.com

A bitter blast of Arctic air will linger across much of the United States this weekend, with tens of millions enduring bone-chilling cold and facing dangerous icy conditions, forecasters warned Saturday, as weather-related deaths numbered more than 60.

Heavy snow blanketed parts of the Northeast and Midwest on Friday, and the plunging temperatures overnight left roadways slick.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency on Saturday announced two more deaths, which occurred in an incident on a highway in rural Leflore County, north of Jackson. Further details were not immediately available.

The state’s death toll has reached at least eight people over the past week, with deaths attributed to road conditions and extreme cold.

In total, weather-related fatalities in the U.S. have grown to at least 61 people amid the wave of dangerous winter weather in recent days. Many of the deaths were reported in Tennessee and Oregon.