A powerful winter storm bringing extreme cold, snow and ice continued to batter the United States on Sunday night, leaving about one million people without electricity, mainly in the South. Authorities warned that outages in some areas could last for days.
Snow blankets New York, Washington and New Jersey
(Footage: Reuters)
At least seven people have died so far amid the freezing temperatures, which are affecting dozens of states. As part of emergency preparations, classes in major cities were canceled or shifted to remote learning on Monday, including at some universities. More than 16,000 flights were canceled nationwide and several major airports were shut down.
Widespread power outages were reported across multiple states, including Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, with disruptions also reaching farther west, such as New Mexico. While the storm also paralyzed the eastern United States, outages there were not on the same scale.
Forecasts said the extreme weather would persist through Monday. In some areas, including Boston, Mass
achusetts, snowfall totals were expected to break records. In addition to snow, parts of the country saw freezing rain, making driving and daily routines hazardous. The federal government approved emergency declarations in at least 12 states.
Freezing temperatures swept across nearly two thirds of the country, and more than 80 percent of flights were canceled in major metropolitan areas, including New York and Philadelphia, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. All flights were canceled at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, while Delta Air Lines reduced operations because of weather conditions. Destinations affected by cancellations included Atlanta, New York, Boston and other East Coast locations.
As of 9:15 p.m. Israel time Sunday, about one million people remained without power, including roughly 330,000 households in Tennessee and more than 100,000 in Mississippi and Louisiana. Outages were also reported in Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia and Alabama, where ice accumulation caused trees, power poles and electrical lines to collapse.
Snow removal at a Pennsylvania international airport:
Zohran Mamdani takes part in truck rescue:
According to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service, heavy snow was expected Monday from the Ohio region eastward, with Massachusetts preparing for about 45 centimeters of snowfall. Much of the Southeast and the central East Coast, including New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, were forecast to see freezing rain, a phenomenon in which raindrops freeze upon contact with cold air near the surface. National Weather Service forecasters warned of extreme cold and freezing wind gusts from the South through the Northeast, saying the conditions could damage infrastructure and make travel dangerous.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose city was blanketed in snow and shifted schools to remote learning, urged residents to stay home and ‘watch bad reality TV’. Speaking to CNN, he said too many New Yorkers were still out on the streets, making it harder to clear roads. He described the conditions as extremely dangerous and said this would be the coldest period the city has experienced in eight years.
Mamdani said the city opened 10 heated shelters and deployed about 2,500 workers on 12 hour shifts across the city. ‘Stay home, find some bad reality TV, this is the day,’ he told residents.
President Donald Trump called the storm ‘historic’ and approved emergency declarations for South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana and West Virginia. The Department of Homeland Security said 17 states had declared states of emergency due to the extreme weather. ‘Power lines can be especially vulnerable to ice,’ officials said. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the storm was unusual because of how long the cold was expected to persist. Ahead of the storm, Trump said a historic cold wave was expected to hit 40 states, something he said is rarely seen. He also mocked global warming and climate change, saying, ‘Can the environmental extremists please explain what happened to global warming???’
Two days earlier, 20 states had declared states of emergency in preparation for the storm, and more than 190 million people, more than half of the U.S. population, were under weather warnings. Even before the storm struck, forecasters warned of a life threatening cold wave spreading from the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains to the East Coast, potentially affecting up to 30 states.
Daniel Edelson contributed to this report