A 90-year-old woman is among ten dead in New York City after she wandered outside in frigid temperatures during the winter storm over the weekend, according to a neighbor.
Doreen Ellis, who had dementia, left her apartment in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood overnight, walked halfway down the block and into the backyard of another building, where she was found dead Monday morning, her family and neighbors told Gothamist.
“She had done that [wandered out] before, but this was in the summertime. Being that it’s cold, you don’t think that somebody will go outside,” neighbor Junior Sharpe told the outlet. “She just got lost.”
Sharpe said Ellis was found wearing just her blue nightgown, headscarf and a single sock. A small white shawl was found next to Ellis, he added.
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani held a press conference on Tuesday, when he confirmed that 10 people have died in the city as sub-freezing temperatures blasted much of the U.S.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told PIX11 News that six of the people died overnight Friday, and one died overnight Saturday.
“We don’t yet know whether every case will be ruled hypothermia, but we need every New Yorker to be on alert, looking out for their neighbors,” Mamdani said. “This is the coldest weather conditions that we have experienced in this city for eight years.”
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The National Weather Service said another winter storm could hit parts of the East Coast this weekend.
“This could be the coldest temperature seen in several years for some places and the longest duration of cold in several decades,” the agency’s Weather Prediction Center warned Tuesday.
Officials in states afflicted with severe cold reported at least 50 deaths. They included two people hit by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, two teenagers killed while sledding in Arkansas and Texas and a man found in his home in the Indianapolis area with no heat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
