A severe winter storm has caused widespread power outages and major disruptions to air travel across the United States. According to the PowerOutages portal, roughly 500,000 households are currently without electricity, with the southern states hit hardest. In Tennessee, where ice has accumulated over 1.3 centimeters, more than 128,000 customers are without power. Texas and Mississippi each see over 100,000 affected households.
The storm has also forced the cancellation of thousands of flights. Since Saturday, more than 15,000 U.S. flights have been called off. On Sunday alone, almost 10,000 domestic and international flights were canceled, representing about a quarter of the flights handled by the Federal Aviation Administration that day. By Monday, the expected final day of the storm, another 1,800 flights-mainly from New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C.-were already scrapped.
The National Weather Service warns that lingering snow and sleet could lead to dangerous ice buildup on roads and sidewalks well into next week. Many cities have opened warming centers for the homeless, and long lines have formed outside grocery stores as residents prepped for shortages. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the event a “historic winter storm” while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy estimated that as many as 240 million Americans could be affected.
