At a Glance At least 17 deaths have been linked to the cold outbreak. Schools and universities were closed throughout the Midwest. The U.S. Postal Service suspended service in parts of several states. Wind chill temperatures were as cold as minus 66 degrees in Minnesota. At least 17 people died as a result of the bitter cold brought on by the Polar Vortex that ushered in the coldest Arctic air the Midwest and Northeast has seen in decades. Though school closures continue and mail delivery is still on hold in some states due to the cold, temperatures are expected to turn milder by the weekend, including parts of the upper Midwest that could be 60-plus degrees warmer than they were at the worst of the cold snap. (MORE: How Long Will the Extreme Cold Last?) The 17 deaths include: Burlington, Vermont, police said a 19-year-old University of Vermont student was found dead Saturday morning behind a business, the Associated Press reported. The police said sub-zero temperatures and inadequate clothing likely contributed to his death. Cold exposure contributed to the deaths of three people in Chicago, the Sun-Times reported: Linda Czech, 62, died Friday, and Joanne O’Donnell, 73, and Jimmie Flewellen, 92, died Thursday, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. Ninety-year-old Ada Salna of Three Rivers, Michigan, was found dead outside her home on Wednesday, according to WOOD-TV. She got locked out in the frigid weather after she went out to feed the birds, the report added. William L. Murphy, of Moline, a 69-year-old FedEx worker, was found dead between two tractor-trailers outside the East Moline, Illinois, delivery hub Thursday morning, according to police Capt. Darren Gault. (MORE: Recapping a Once-in-a-Generation Arctic Outbreak) A 60-year-old woman was found dead in an abandoned Lorain, Ohio, home Wednesday morning during the spell of subzero temperatures. Lorain County Coroner Dr. Stephen Evans told the Chronicle-Telegram the woman appeared to have died of hypothermia. A homeless man was found frozen to death Thursday morning in a bus shelter in the village of Williamsville in Amherst, New York, the Buffalo News reports. Gary Sammons, 70, of Ecorse, Michigan, was found dead outside his home Wednesday, according to WILX.com. Sammons wasn't dressed appropriately for the cold and had no hat or gloves. In Detroit, a 70-year-old man was also found dead in front of a neighbor's home Wednesday. A 60-year-old man was found dead Wednesday outdoors in East Lansing, Michigan, the Free Press reported. An autopsy will determine the cause of death, although foul play is not suspected. University of Iowa student Gerald Belz, 18, was found dead on campus Wednesday morning, KCRG reported. The exact details leading to his death are unclear, but officials told the news station that the cold weather was to blame. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office is investigating the death of an unidentified 38-year-old woman found frozen in her unheated apartment Wednesday. An investigation revealed the thermostat in her apartment had malfunctioned. An 82-year-old Peoria County, Illinois, man was found dead after he tripped and fell outside his home and fell victim to the cold temperatures, NEWS 25 reported. (PHOTOS: Polar Vortex Brings Deep Freeze to Millions) Two people were found dead outside their homes in Delaware County, Indiana, Saturday, believed to be cold-related. An unidentified 87-year-old woman was found outside her home Saturday, RTV6 reports. Delaware County Coroner Rick Hoover says her death appears to be cold-related, pending toxicology reports. A 59-year-old man was also found dead outside his home on Tuesday. Hoover says that man's death is also believed to be linked to the cold. On Sunday, the body of 22-year-old Ali Gombo was discovered outside his sister's home in Rochester, Minnesota, WCCO reports. Police say he went to a bar Saturday night and was dropped off at the home around 2:30 a.m. He didn't have keys to the home and when he found the home locked he reportedly tried to wake his sister but she didn't hear him. Gombo's body was found the next morning. Authorities say he likely died of hypothermia trying to get into the home. Frostbite Injuries Quickly Adding Up Illinois hospitals have treated 144 frostbite victims since the blast of arctic air gripped the state, including a number of patients that may lose limbs. "It's a horrific situation," Dr. Stathis Poulakidas, who heads Chicago's John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital's burn and wound care services, told CNN. In that hospital alone, some 50 people have been treated for frostbite during this cold snap, the report added. Around 150 cases of frostbite is typically the benchmark for a brutal season, said Poulakidas. From what this season has shown so far, this could be one of them. The vast majority of victims treated for frostbite tend to be homeless or have jobs that require them to be outside during the frigid temperatures. Poulakidas said frostbite can set in as quickly as three to 10 minutes with conditions as extreme as Chicago has seen lately. Factors like age, alcohol consumption and apparel — like wet socks and gloves — can affect how quickly it can set in. The break in the Polar Vortex brought a wind chill of minus 66 degrees Fahrenheit in Minnesota early Wednesday and wind chills of minus 58 in Wisconsin and Iowa. Several major Midwest universities remain closed Thursday, including the University of Notre Dame, the University of Minnesota, the University of North Dakota, the University of Wisconsin, the University of South Dakota and Iowa State University. In a rare move, the cold prompted the U.S. Postal Service to ignore the popular saying, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Instead, the service once again suspended service Thursday to parts or all of several Midwest states, including Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 flights have been canceled as of Thursday evening, including more than 1,400 at Chicago's O'Hare, according to Flight Aware. Here's a full breakdown of how different states in the Midwest are faring under the bitter cold: Illinois A state of emergency remains in effect for the state. On Wednesday, 21 passengers on a Chicago-bound bus were rescued when the bus broke down on Interstate 55 near Springfield. The cause of the break down was gelled diesel fuel from the cold. The passengers endured cold temperatures on the bus for a significant amount of time before they were rescued. Ice forms along the shore of Lake Michigan before sunrise Thursday, January 31, 2019, in Chicago. The painfully cold weather system that put much of the Midwest into a historic deep freeze was expected to ease Thursday, though temperatures still tumbled to record lows in some places. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato) Temperatures dipped to minus 23 degrees Wednesday morning at Chicago's O'Hare, with a wind chill of minus 49. The last time temperatures dropped below minus 20 in the Windy City was Jan. 18, 1994. Calling the brutal cold a "public health risk," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said city agencies are making sure homeless people are in shelters or offered space in five Chicago Transit Authority buses. Advertisement "These (conditions) are actually a public health risk and you need to treat it appropriately," Emanuel said. "They are life-threatening conditions and temperatures." The Salvation Army told weather.com they are partnering with city officials to conduct well-being checks. It's also providing meals at shelters, delivering cold weather gear packages and deploying mobile feeding and homeless outreach units to 31 locations in the city. Chicagoland schools and most colleges in the state remain closed Thursday. The Brookfield Zoo is closed on Thursday because of the frigid weather. This will be only the fourth time the zoo has closed during its 85-year history. Other Chicago attractions closed Thursday include the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum. Amtrak says it is restoring some train service in and out of Chicago Thursday after suspending all trains Wednesday. Typically, 55 trains come in and out of the Chicago hub. To prevent train tracks from contracting under the bitter cold, Chicago transit authorities set fire to the tracks.<doc-sep>News Lori Vallow Has Been Charged For The Murder Of Her Two Children On Tuesday, a grand jury in Idaho formally accused Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow of murder in connection with the deaths of Vallow’s two children, Tyl<doc-sep>Weather Polar Vortex Death Toll 7 With University Of Iowa Student's Death The record cold with the polar vortex has claimed at least seven lives, including a University of Iowa student found Wednesday. Reply IOWA CITY, IA — A University of Iowa student found dead near a campus building early Wednesday morning may have died of exposure as a deadly polar vortex bears down on Iowa and much of the nation's midsection. The student, pre-med major Gerald Belz, of Cedar Rapids, was unresponsive when campus police found him about 2:48 a.m. His death brings to seven the number of people who have died in the brutal cold snap, created by a swirling mass of cold air that swept into the Upper Midwest from the Arctic. The extreme cold is shattering records that have stood for 20 years or more across Iowa and other Midwest states. Belz was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died, according to a report in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. The temperature was around minus 22 degrees at the time, and the wind chill was around minus 51. Officials haven't released a cause of death or the University of Iowa student's age. An investigation is ongoing, but police don't suspect foul play. The student was found near a fitness center adjacent to Hasley Hall, the newspaper said. At temperatures like Iowa experienced Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, hypothermia can develop in as little as 10 minutes if a person isn't wearing adequate outerwear or has skin exposed — especially the scalp, hands, fingers or face. The life-threatening polar vortex is causing misery across the nation's midsection. Schools and universities across Iowa and the Midwest canceled classes Wednesday and some won't resume until Friday. Businesses across the region told employees to stay home, and the U.S. Postal Service suspended mail delivery in parts of about a dozen states, including Iowa. Thousands of flights were canceled.<doc-sep>
CHICAGO – A historic and deadly cold snap, fueled by the polar vortex, gripped a wide swath of the nation Wednesday, with temperatures plunging far below zero and wind chill numbers as extraordinary as they are dangerous. Chicago's temperature tumbled to 21 below Wednesday morning, a record for the date and closing in on the city's all-time record of minus-27 set in 1985. That record could fall Thursday. The wind chill dipped to an even more startling 51 degrees below zero. The National Weather Service said the temperature reached minus-28 degrees in Minneapolis, poised to break a record dating back more than 100 years. The wind chill: minus-49. Norris Camp, Minnesota, almost made it there without allowing for wind, recording an actual air temperature of 48 degrees below zero. Wind chill temperatures in dozens of towns across Minnesota and North Dakota plummeted to 60 below or less, the weather service said. Officials in Minnesota pulled snowplows off the roads in 11 southeastern counties, citing mechanical problems because of the extreme cold. "One of the coldest arctic air mass intrusions in recent memory is surging south into the Upper Midwest before spreading across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country," the weather service said, warning of "life-threatening wind chills, likely leading to widespread record lows and low maximum temperatures." Frostbite can set in within five minutes in such temperatures, the weather service said. In the East on Wednesday, blinding snow squalls on highways caused at least three significant pileups of cars and trucks, two in Pennsylvania and one in New York. Near Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, dozens of vehicles were involved in a pileup, and numerous injuries were reported, according to the Reading Eagle. A pileup on the New York State Thruway between Batavia and LeRoy caused multiple injuries, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle said. At least eight deaths were linked to the weather, including a man struck and killed by a snowplow in the Chicago area, a young couple whose SUV struck another on a snowy road in northern Indiana and, in Milwaukee, a man found frozen to death in a garage. A student died in the hospital after he was found unresponsive outdoors by University of Iowa Police on the school's campus at around 3 a.m. local time Wednesday, KCRG-TV9 reported. It said officials believe the death of Gerald Belz, 18, a second-year pre-medicine major, was related to the weather. The wind chill was -51 degrees in Iowa City at the time. In Michigan, the body of a Detroit man was found in front of a neighbor's home, and in suburban Ecorse another man was found outside without a hat or gloves. A University of Iowa student was found dead Wednesday morning, and university officials believe the death was caused by the extreme weather. The wind chill fell to 27 below in Detroit and minus-32 in Ann Arbor. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered that warming centers be opened across the state. "Stay inside if you can," Whitmer pleaded. "And try to make sure that, if you see someone in need, you take action." In Kentucky, Gov. Matt Bevin took a different tack, telling WHAS radio that closing schools for cold weather “sends messages to our young people that if life is hard you can curl up in the fetal position somewhere.” Bevin added that he was being "only slightly facetious" and that it was better to err on the side of safety. Thousands of flights into and out of airports in the region were delayed or canceled, including more than 1,000 flights at Chicago airports alone. Amtrak pulled the plug in Chicago, announcing the "extreme weather conditions and an abundance of caution" led the service to cancel all trains to and from the city on Wednesday. Short-distance services are also canceled on Thursday, Amtrak said. Light rail was also a mess as some suburban lines shut down Wednesday. The Chicago Transit Authority, which shuttles about 1.6 million riders on a typical weekday, reported significant or major delays on multiple routes during the morning commute. Even the Postal Service took notice, announcing that because of concerns for the safety of its employees, mail won't be delivered Wednesday in parts of at least 10 states. Chicago River freezing:Here's what it looks like in sub-zero temperatures Homeless shelters and warming centers were abuzz across the region. In Chicago, officials added 500 shelter beds and tapped more than 100 religious leaders to make calls and checks on senior citizens.