Record Low Temperatures Kill 2 in East

Water mains and power lines snapped and people stayed indoors across parts of the East on Sunday as temperatures fell to record lows as far south as the Carolinas. At least two deaths were attributed to the cold.

Searchers on Sunday found the body of a hiker who was believed to have frozen to death in his sleeping bag on New Hampshire’s Mt. Jefferson. The temperature was 30 below with wind gusts to 90 m.p.h.

In Eagle Grove, Iowa, an elderly man with Alzheimer’s disease wandered away from his home early Sunday and died from exposure.

Temperatures hit record lows Sunday from the Great Lakes to the Carolinas, including 28 degrees below zero at Alpena, Mich.; 17 below at Syracuse, N.Y.; 18 below at Elkins, W. Va.; 1 below at Asheville, N.C., and 6 above at Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.

Watertown, N.Y., chilled to 43 below early Sunday, the coldest spot in the Lower 48 states, the National Weather Service said.

About a fourth of the residents of Hallock in northwestern Minnesota trudged to neighbors’ homes and the City Hall for water Sunday after a water tower pipe froze and water mains broke following days of subzero temperatures.

The town of about 1,300 people 20 miles south of the Canadian border has had temperatures below zero for days.

Subzero temperatures in much of West Virginia left 7,000 Appalachian Power Co. customers without service Sunday, spokesman Jack Shaver said.

Snapped power lines knocked out service to 6,200 customers in southeastern Michigan, Detroit Edison Co. said.

In eastern Kentucky, about 330 South Williamson residents lost gas heat early Sunday when a pipeline froze.

In nearby Belfry, Ky., a shelter for people without heat was set up at the courthouse.