Massive winter storm affects 1,500 miles, causing 730k power outages across southern US
(TNND) — The massive winter storm sprawling across the United States has stretched over 1,500 miles from the Southern Plains to the East Coast states.
Power outages across the nation have continued to climb as ice spreads and builds in parts of the South where it has been falling since yesterday.
Thousands of homes and businesses in the Southeast area have been left without electricity as tree branches and power lines snapped under the weight of the ice.
Over 730,000 customers so far are without power across eight states in the storm’s path, according to poweroutage.us, with most outages hitting the Southern states of Tennessee, Texas and Mississippi.
After hitting the south on Saturday night, forecasters say the storm is expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about 1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington, DC through New York and Boston.
The storm has also set the stage for a brutal travel day on Sunday, with some of the nation’s busiest airports warning of widespread cancellations and delays.
More than 13,500 flights have been cancelled across the U.S. since Saturday, according to FlightAware, with about 9,600 of those flights scheduled for Sunday.
According to flight tracking site, FlightAware, American Airlines has canceled over 1,400 flights for Sunday. Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines reported about 1,000 cancellations each, and American Airlines had more than 800. JetBlue has had more than 560 canceled flights, making up about 70% of its schedule for the day.
The storm has made history, breaking the record for the highest number of counties simultaneously under a Winter Storm Warning.
President Donald Trump announced that he has approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states by Saturday, with more expected. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has placed resources, staff and search and rescue teams across numerous states, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
