Death toll from winter storm rises to at least 26

The death toll from the winter storm sweeping across large parts of the continental United States has risen to at least 26. 

People have died in weather-related traffic accidents or from the cold, while a couple died as a results of responders not being able to treat medical conditions quickly enough because of the conditions outside. 

Buffalo, N.Y., has been perhaps the hardest-hit location in the country, with at least seven people confirmed dead amid the storm. The National Weather Service said that 43 inches of snow had fallen at Buffalo’s airport as of 7 a.m. Sunday. 

The storm brought hurricane-force winds and created whiteout conditions as it battered the area. A bomb cyclone, which happens when atmospheric pressure drops sharply in a strong storm, developed over the Great Lakes. 

The storm has sent temperatures well below freezing in much of the country. 

CNN reported that eight people have died from weather-related car crashes in Ohio. That includes four people who died in a 46-car pileup on the Ohio Turnpike on Saturday. 

Police in Colorado Springs, Colo., reported that two people have died from the cold since Thursday, according to CNN. Officials found one man near a power transformer of a building and another man in a camp in an alleyway. 

Three people died in weather-related traffic accidents in Kansas, three died in Kentucky and Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin have each reported one traffic-related death. 

Officials have urged people in the areas most affected to stay off the roads for their own safety and to allow emergency responders to get where they need to be. 

The storm also caused hundreds of thousands to lose power in more than a dozen states and delayed and canceled thousands of flights.