hello and welcome to bbc news. at least 60 people have been killed in winter storms across the united states and canada. president biden has approved an emergency declaration allowing federal support for new york state. the city of buffalo has borne the brunt of the arctic conditions. it lies in the great lakes region and near the canadian border 27 bodies have been recovered there; and more are expected to be found in cars buried in the snow. blizzards have blocked roads and brought down power lines making it hard to get food and medicine. sean dilley reports. forfive days, blizzard conditions have disrupted life and travel across america. dozens of deaths have been reported, more are expected in the coming days. emergency services are among those struggling with the weather. a quarter of a million homes and businesses are estimated to have been hit by power cuts on christmas eve and christmas day. the impact of the storm has stretched from canada to the mexican border.
From Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains to every corner of Waffle House's home state of Georgia, the company has been providing quality service for decades.
let s get more on this from meteorologist matthew cappucci, who joins us from new york city. remind us first of all why this extreme weather is happening and why the city of buffalo has been so badly affected in particular. this is something badly affected in particular. this is something we badly affected in particular. ti 3 is something we saw coming and advance, but the bigger story is how to fix the pattern. last week, we talked about the bomb cycle, the low pressure system over the great lakes, sucking down cold air on temperatures of 40 other central us. the focus was on that, people forgot about the second act. as the storm pulled away to canada, cold air raced down parallel to the great lakes and picked up moisture and deposited those little strips of moisture at the end of the lake
revealed its condition was deteriorating. efforts are now under way to remove vehicles from the mangled structure, but given the difficult terrain, officials say it could take months to clear up the debris. peter bowes, bbc news. this is bbc news. the headlines: the us has warned that the build up of russian troops on the ukraine border is the largest since the cold war. earlier, the russian president, vladimir putin, told his french counterpart, emmanuel macron, that he had no plans for an offensive. the report into parties held at downing street during lockdown is expected to be delivered to the prime minister shortly. there had been speculation the report would be delayed. people on the us north east coast are bracing themselves for a powerful winter storm bringing high winds and heavy snow due to hit over the weekend. thousands of flights have been cancelled in the region. a short time ago i got the details from meteorologist matthew cappucci, who is in cape cod,
could last for several months. people on the us north east coast are bracing themselves for a powerful winter storm, bringing high winds and heavy snow, due to hit over the weekend. thousands of flights have been cancelled in the region with warnings of possible snow fall of up to 50 centimetres or more in some places. for more on this i m joined now by meteorologist matthew cappucci who is in cape cod one of the areas due to be worst affected by the storm. matthew, the warnings are pretty stark. just how big and destruct is this snowstorm going to be? going to be? here in the north-east going to be? here in the north-east we going to be? here in the north-east we are - going to be? here in the north-east we are used l going to be? here in the i north-east we are used to north east we are used to pretty big snowstorms but the really impressive thing is adjust the amounts but the rapidity that there is will come down, close to ten centimetres per hour at times stopping there is n