More than 900,000 customers across the US, stretching as far west as New Mexico, were left without power, while nearly 17,000 flights were cancelled ahead of a massive winter storm expected to cripple eastern states with heavy snowfall.
Meteorologists said snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously low temperatures would move across the eastern two-thirds of the nation today and continue into next week, reports RTE.
Describing the storms as “historic,” President Donald Trump approved federal emergency disaster declarations for South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana and West Virginia.
“We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social, reports RTE.
Seventeen states along with the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem urged Americans to take precautions, reports RTE.
“It’s going to be very, very cold,” Ms Noem said. “So we’d encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together,” reports RTE.
“We have utility crews that are working to restore that as quick as possible,” Ms Noem added, reports RTE.
Power outages continued to climb. By 7.23am EST (12.23pm Irish time), more than 500,000 US customers were without electricity, PowerOutage.us reported, with Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee each accounting for more than 100,000 outages. Louisiana and New Mexico were also affected, reports RTE.
The Department of Energy issued an emergency order allowing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy backup power generation at data centres and other major facilities to reduce the risk of blackouts.
It also authorised grid operator PJM Interconnection to operate “specified resources” across the mid-Atlantic region, overriding restrictions tied to state laws or environmental permits, reports RTE.
The National Weather Service warned the unusually widespread and prolonged winter storm would cause extensive and heavy ice accumulation across the Southeast, where “crippling to locally catastrophic impacts” were expected.
Forecasters also predicted record-breaking cold and dangerous wind chills spreading deeper into the Great Plains region by tomorrow, reports RTE.
More than 9,600 US flights scheduled for today were cancelled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, following over 4,000 cancellations the previous day.
Major US airlines warned travellers to prepare for sudden flight changes and further cancellations, reports RTE.
US power grid operators increased precautions in an effort to prevent rolling blackouts.
Dominion Energy, which operates in Virginia and supports the world’s largest concentration of data centres, said that if ice forecasts hold true, the storm could rank among the most significant events in the company’s history, reports RTE.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul cautioned residents to remain indoors amid bitterly cold conditions: “Five or six minutes outside could literally be dangerous for your health,” reports RTE.
She emphasised safety measures including protecting pipes, using heaters properly and checking on vulnerable neighbours.
Officials warned that life-threatening cold could persist for up to a week after the storm, particularly in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest, where wind chill values were expected to plunge below -45C, reports RTE.
Such extreme temperatures can cause frostbite in a matter of minutes.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
