(CNN) — Con gran parte de Estados Unidos todavía afectada por una tormenta invernal de casi una semana de duración, las cancelaciones y retrasos de vuelos y otros problemas de transporte siguen acumulándose el día de Navidad.
Más de 1.600 vuelos dentro, hacia o fuera de Estados Unidos ya habían sido cancelados a las 5:30 p.m. ET de este domingo, según el sitio web de seguimiento de vuelos FlightAware. Y los vuelos que aún podían despegar sufrían casi 5.800 retrasos. El día de Navidad es tradicionalmente un día ligero para los vuelos de pasajeros.
Como una demostración de la magnitud y el impacto de la tormenta, fue un aeropuerto en el sur el que se vio más afectado al mediodía del día de Navidad.
Una prolongada tormenta invernal causa cortes de electricidad, interrupciones de los viajes y temperaturas gélidas el día de Navidad
El aeropuerto internacional de Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL), el de mayor tráfico de pasajeros del mundo, fue el que registró más cancelaciones y retrasos.
El número 2, el Aeropuerto Internacional de Denver, se encontraba a más de 1.600 kilómetros de distancia, en las Montañas Rocosas.
El Aeropuerto Internacional de Denver mantuvo el sentido del humor durante el estresante evento, publicando un tuit de lo que parecía ser un trabajador del aeropuerto tocando “Jingle Bells” en un violín. La temperatura a las 3:30 a.m. MT en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Denver ya estaba por encima del punto de congelación, a 8°C (46°F).
Catching some downtime inside St. Francis House on Sunday, Karen LaFrazia took in the Christmas spirit that filled the homeless shelter’s kitchen and dining room.
LaFrazia, the agency’s president and CEO, watched 350 guests enjoy plates full of stuffed chicken breast, butternut squash, mashed potatoes and string beans. Roughly 30 volunteers served the meals restaurant style during St. Francis House’s annual Christmas Day lunch.
“The thing that fills me with warmth is when I look at the people who are housed and the people who are unhoused, there’s real fellowship happening,” LaFrazia said. “The folks who are coming here are the same as anyone who lives in any neighborhood around the Commonwealth. They’d be great neighbors.”
Sooner than later, guests will get a chance to become neighbors.
St. Francis House will be breaking ground on a 19-story, 126-unit affordable housing building on Lagrange Street, at the crossroads of Chinatown and Downtown Crossing, by late spring.
Seventy units will be for people who are coming out of homelessness, while the remainder will be used to prevent people becoming homeless, LaFrazia said. The units, including studios and 1- and 2-bedrooms, will range in price from extremely low-income to market rate.
“Wouldn’t it be the best Christmas present, the best New Year’s gift, that they woke up in their own bed next Christmas, they’d cook their own Christmas meal, invite their own family and friends to their home?” she asked. “That’s my Christmas wish. Every single one of these men and women deserve their own place to live.”
Boston saw its homeless population decrease by 2.4% from last year to 1,545 individuals earlier this year, according to the city’s 42nd annual census released in June. The number of homeless families, however, had increased, from 843 to 929, the census shows.
Accessing affordable living quarters in the city is getting harder, too. The median price for a 1-bedroom rental is $3,060 in Boston, which leapfrogged San Francisco to be the second most expensive city in the country, according to an October report from Zumper.
St. Francis House staffers are looking to secure affordable apartments for 150 people within the next year, but LaFrazia said she expects the project her agency will be undertaking next year will bring more relief by increasing Boston’s sparse affordable housing stock.
“There just isn’t enough affordable housing,” she said. “You can send people to go look for it, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be there.”
Watertown resident Mel Powsner volunteered for the first time on Christmas with her aunt Judith Powsner, of Waltham, who has volunteered on the holiday a handful of times. They are Jewish and don’t celebrate Christmas, and they said they like serving because it means others can spend the day with their families.
“It doesn’t address the long-term problem of housing and food insecurity,” Judith Powsner said. “There really needs to be much more affordable housing in the Boston area. We hope the mayor is doing something about it.”
City resident Joseph Marrow spent Christmas afternoon feeling grateful for all that St. Francis House provides. The Vietnam War veteran left a Dorchester home he had been living in for about 10 years as it turned into a “drug house.”
After his departure, Marrow said he has turned to St. Francis House for assistance while he lives at a shelter provided through Pine Street Inn, another city-based homeless service agency. He expects to move into more permanent housing in January.
“St. Francis is a place where you can come and relax and get help,” Marrow said. “It means a whole lot.”
Volunteer Cheryl Rogers, center, places a meal in front of Colette Olcott, right, after delivering a meal to Clement Morris at St. Francis House on Boylston Street. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)More than 300 meals were served at the annual Christmas lunch at St. Francis House. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)Volunteers work preparing meals during the annual Christmas lunch at St. Francis House in Boston. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)Judy Lam of Boston hands over a completed meal to another volunteer at the annual Christmas lunch. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)
D.C. United’s founding president and general manager Kevin Payne died Christmas Day. He was 69.
The Washington Post, who first broke the news, reported Payne’s cause of death was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. D.C. United confirmed his death on Twitter, with the team offering condolences to Payne’s family.
“He will always be remembered as a dedicated champion of our club, MLS, our community and soccer in the U.S,” the statement read.
We are saddened to share the news that our founding president and general manager Kevin Payne has passed away.
He will always be remembered as a dedicated champion of our club, MLS, our community and soccer in the U.S. Our deepest condolences go out to his family.
WASHINGTON — Three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve.
Texas authorities have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus drop-offs are in line with previous actions by border-state governors calling attention to the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
The buses that arrived late Saturday outside the vice president’s residence were carrying around 110 to 130 people, according to Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a relief agency working with the city of Washington to serve thousands of migrants who have been dropped off in recent months.
Local organizers had expected the buses to arrive Sunday but found out Saturday that the group would get to Washington early, Laborde said. The people on board included young children.
Some were wearing T-shirts despite temperatures hovering around 15 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the coldest Christmas Eve on record for Washington, according to the Washington Post.
Laborde said employees had blankets ready for the people who arrived on Christmas Eve and moved them quickly onto waiting buses for a ride to an area church. A local restaurant chain donated dinner and breakfast.
Most of the arrivals were headed to other destinations and expected to remain in Washington only briefly.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday morning. His office said last week that Texas has given bus rides to more than 15,000 people since April to Washington, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, both Republicans, are strong critics of President Joe Biden on his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, where thousands of people are trying to cross daily, many to seek asylum. Officials on both sides of the border are seeking emergency help in setting up shelters and services for migrants, some of whom are sleeping on streets.
Republicans argue Biden and Harris, designated the administration’s point person on the root causes of migration, have relaxed restrictions that induced many people to leave their countries of origin. Biden has ended some policies but kept others enacted by former President Donald Trump, whose administration also grappled with spikes in border crossings and at one point separated immigrant families and children as a deterrence initiative.
White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan called the bus drop-offs a “cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt.”
“As we have repeatedly said, we are willing to work with anyone — Republican or Democrat alike — on real solutions, like the comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures President Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office, but these political games accomplish nothing and only put lives in danger,” Hasan said in a statement Sunday.
