Cities like Chicago had been preparing for the deep freeze for days, and by the time it arrived in earnest on Wednesday morning, much of life had come to a standstill. Colleges were closed in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, schools were closed all around, and even the U.S. Postal Service had stopped deliveries in some places. Workers were sent home, meetings canceled, parties called off.
Here are the latest developments:
— Temperatures plummeted and could break records. Minneapolis was minus 27, with a wind chill of minus 51, the National Weather Service said. Chicago was minus 20, with a windchill of minus 45. And Milwaukee was minus 19, with a wind chill of minus 46.
— At least four deaths have been connected to the Midwest’s dangerously cold weather system, according to The Associated Press, including a man hit by a snow plow in the Chicago region, a man believed to have frozen to death in a Milwaukee garage, and a couple killed in a vehicle accident on an Indiana road.
— Officials throughout the region have declared states of emergency, warned of frostbite and hypothermia, and urged residents to heed guidelines that ultimately boiled down to two words: Stay inside.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.