A snowstorm hit Iowa three days before Donald Trump's crucial primary

Canceled flights, snowy roads, and postponement of election campaign meetings… A winter storm sows chaos on Friday, January 12, in the US state of Iowa, three days before the first election meeting of the year for Republicans.

On January 15, this Midwestern state is scheduled to launch its major primary, in which Donald Trump is the front-runner… if voters can travel to vote. Because the entire state is being swept by the cold wave that the American authorities themselves described “dangerous”.

In the capital, Des Moines, where snow fell all day, only a few vehicles took advantage of their opportunity on the slippery roads. Dozens of cars and trucks overturned on the road. Winds of over 50 km/h are expected overnight, and the temperature, which was at -9°C, is expected to drop by another ten to twenty degrees over the next few days.

Most of the flights, which were supposed to transport thousands of journalists, activists and campaign volunteers who came for the first major meeting of the US presidential election, were canceled or redirected to neighboring countries.

Trump wants to do everything to 'make voting easier'

How do you campaign in these circumstances? The question occupies Republican candidates who are forced to cancel or postpone their events. Among these, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, preferred to transfer all of her scheduled meetings on the ground to the Internet.

“We are not afraid of snow”Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who headed to his campaign headquarters in the early afternoon, was unable to meet voters.

The forty-year-old man, who currently ranks third in Republican opinion polls, is still hoping that he can reduce the stunning margin enjoyed by the most likely candidate, Donald Trump.

The former president also has to deal with the chaos caused by the storm: Many of his Saturday meetings across the state were canceled. The billionaire has been criminally charged four times, and is counting on a resounding victory in Iowa to be quickly installed as the Republican nominee against Joe Biden in November. Those around him are urging local authorities to do everything they can to do so “Facilitate the voting process” Monday evening.

The storm is expected to intensify

Outside of Iowa, most of the country has been hit in recent days by heavy rain and snow caused by a winter storm that left many dead and deprived hundreds of thousands of homes of electricity. “Every state is on yellow, orange or red alert.”The National Weather Service (NWS) warned in X.

The storm is expected to intensify across the country, with snowfall across the Midwest and severe thunderstorms in the South.

The Chicago (Ill.) airport was closed Friday morning due to snow and ice, and hundreds of flights were canceled throughout the region.