Iowa Water Tower Freezes Amid Deadly Cold Snap

EVANSDALE, IA — Evansdale is planning to send a city worker Tuesday to climb a water tower that has froze amidst the country's current cold snap. The worker will try to see what's wrong and determine how to fix the problem.

Arctic temperatures are stretching across a wide swath of the U.S. The harsh record-breaking weather has been blamed for at least nine deaths in the past week.

The Waterloo suburb of Evansdale lost water service for a time Monday after temperatures fell to minus 20 degrees. Mayor Doug Faas said Tuesday that water is being run directly from the wells into the system, bypassing the suspected ice blockage in the tower.

Elsewhere in the country, the frigid air is causing a range of challenges.

In the northwest Indiana city of Lafayette, residents began hearing a hum that Duke Energy says is caused by extra power surging through utility lines to meet power demands during the Arctic blast. Monday's low fell to minus 16 degrees at the National Weather Service's Purdue Airport station in adjacent West Lafayette.

The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and freeze warnings Tuesday covering a vast area from South Texas to Canada and from Montana through New England.

Authorities opened warming shelters in the South as temperatures dipped notably close to zero in Alabama and Georgia.

In Aberdeen, South Dakota, the mercury dropped to a record-breaking minus 32. The city's previous New Year's Day record had stood for 99 years.

It's even cold in the Deep South, as temperatures plummeted early Tuesday to 14 in Atlanta and 26 as far south as New Orleans.

Matt Milner/The Ottumwa Courier via AP