Higher energy costs accompany bitter cold snap in US

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Plunging temperatures across half the country on Thursday underscored a stark reality for low-income Americans who rely on heating aid: Their dollars aren’t going to go as far this winter because of rising energy costs.

Forecasters warned people to be wary of hypothermia and frostbite from an arctic blast that’s gripping a large swath from the Midwest to the Northeast, where the temperature — without the wind chill factored in — dipped to minus 32 on Thursday morning in Watertown, New York.

Even before the cold snap, the Department of Energy projected that heating costs were going to track upward this winter, and many people are keeping a wary eye on their fuel tanks to ensure they don’t run out.

Elizabeth Parker, 88, of Sanford, Maine, said she lives in fear of running out of fuel and remains vigilant in monitoring the gauge outside her trailer, just in case, especially during cold weather.

She said she is allowed to request a fuel delivery thanks to federal aid — but only when her gauge dips to one-eighth of a tank.

“I couldn’t get along without it,” said Parker, who lives with her 93-year-old husband, Robert, along with a cat, dog and four birds.

Prolonged, dangerous cold weather this week has sent advocates for the homeless scrambling to get people off the streets and to bring in extra beds for them. Frozen pipes and dead car batteries added to the misery across the region.

In western New York and Erie, Pennsylvania, residents were still cleaning up from massive snowfall. Firefighters had to use a bucket loader to rescue someone trapped in her home in Lorraine, New York.

In Ohio, a third body was recovered near a car that slid off an icy road and flipped into a canal days earlier in Oregon, near the Lake Erie shoreline.