NEW YORK CITY – The freezing cold that’s plagued much of the northern United States will stick around for at least one more day and at least nine deaths are already being linked to the weather.
The UCLA men’s volleyball team, which is in Chicago for a road trip, couldn’t handle the sub-zero temperatures.
“We actually had to search the athletic department and borrow what we have from the football team. We were just usually not prepared for this out in California,” coach John Speraw said.
More hardened Northerners were able to enjoy the cold with some turning boiling water into snow and freezing wet T-shirts.
“We don’t care, we’re Minnesotan. We’re gonna do whatever we got to do to have some fun,” Anna Fitzer of Minneapolis said.
The Polar Vortex is hanging around for at least one more day with the deep freeze causing serious problems for many throughout the Midwest and Northeast.
In New Jersey, a massive blaze at a paper company was only made worse by the whipping winds.
“Firefighters are dealing with water on their hands, on their face. I was out there. It’s spraying all over you. Regardless of if you have equipment on or not, it’s impacting you, and the cold slows you down,” Elmwood Park Poice Chief Michael Foligno said.
Meanwhile, firefighters in Indiana battled a house fire as windchills reached negative 50. There was also blinding snowsqualls that caused pileups in Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.
“It’s like giant cotton balls falling at your car,” observed Sadie Palme of Mansfield, Massachusetts.
The US Postal Service is cancelling mail delivery in parts of the Midwest for the second day in a row due to the dangerously cold weather.
Before the cold begins to recede, Chicago is expected to break the city’s record low temperature of minus 27.
-Marc Liverman reporting for CBS News
