Multiple Crises in America in January 2014

In September 2013 I posted a prediction that January 2014 would bring a "brief but acute crisis" for the USA.  It turned out that January brought a whole string of brief acute crises. Overall, over 40 people died in a series of tragedies and disasters across the nation, hundreds were wounded, billions of dollars were lost, and the lives of over 200 million people were disrupted. None of these disasters and tragedies lasted very long, but the whole month was just a more or less continuous series of emergencies of the US. 

Just as January began,  the nation was plunged into a historic cold snap when a record breaking Polar Vortex descended on the US.  Massachusetts, New York,  Tennessee, and New Jersey all declared state emergencies when at least sixteen people died in a massive winter storm across the Northeast. At least 49 record lows were set across the nation on January 7th. Affecting the US east of the Rockies and as far south as central Florida, this storm resulted in heavy snowfall and record cold temperatures across the nation, affecting over 187 million Americans and causing business, school, railroad, and road closures across much of the nation, as well as several thousand flight cancellations. This storm was called "the worst weather event for the economy since Superstorm Sandy".

A second Polar Vortex descended on the nation on January 21st, bringing heavy snow, strong winds and frigid temperatures to over 100 million people from North Carolina to the Midwest. Once again, thousands of flights were cancelled and schools and roads were closed. In northwest Indiana, this frigid storm caused a massive 30 vehicle crash on Interstate 94 that involved over a dozen semi trucks and killed three and injured dozens. 

On January 28th, a third storm hit the US, dropping snow and ice from Texas to South Carolina, creating a terrible mess in cities like Atlanta and Chattanooga, where drivers abandoned their cars in the middle of the streets by the thousands and spent the night sleeping in stores, schools, and restaurants.  Thousands of flights were again cancelled across the nation, and nine deaths were attributed to the storm, and supplies of propane and salt were running out in several areas. On January 29th, the National Guard was deployed in Atlanta to help with the chaos. 


In addition to all the above crises, all the following also happened in January:

 Jan 1: A three-story apartment building exploded in Minneapolis.

Jan 7: Four were killed in US Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk crash in England

Jan 8: Two died when a Navy helicopter made an emergency landing.
Jan 8: One died in a avalanche in Colorado.

Jan 9: A crisis in West Virginia began when the state's water supply was contaminated by a chemical spill.
Jan 9 : One person was shot in a school shooting in Jackson Tennessee.

Jan 13: A retired police officer shot a man dead at a Florida theater.
Jan 13: One person was shot in a school shooting in New Haven Connecticut.

Jan 14: Two students were shot in a school in Roswell, New Mexico

Jan 17: Two students were shot in Philadelphia.

Jan 20: One student was shot in a university in Philadelphia.
Jan 20: Two died in a Nebraska feed plant explosion.
Jan 20: Two died in an Oklahoma industrial explosion.

Jan 21: A man was killed in a shooting at Purdue University.

Jan 22: A biodiesel complex exploded in Mississippi.

Jan 24: One man died in a shooting in a school in South Carolina.

Jan 25: Three were killed in a mall shooting near the US capital.