US hurricane leaves 500,000 without power, forces thousands of flight cancellations
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More than 500,000 customers in the United States as far west as Texas were without power, and more than 9,600 flights were expected to be canceled Sunday ahead of a powerful winter storm that threatened to cripple eastern states with heavy snowfall.
Forecasters said snow, sleet, sleet and freezing temperatures will sweep across two-thirds of the eastern US on Sunday and into the week.
Calling the storms “historic,” US President Donald Trump on Saturday authorized emergency disaster declarations in 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 countries in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm,” Trump wrote in his post on the Truth Social platform.
Forecast for ‘disabling local catastrophic impacts’
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
At a news conference Saturday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem warned Americans to take precautions.
“It will be very cold,” said Noem. “So we can encourage everyone to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we’ll get through this together.”
He added, “We have staff working to restore that as quickly as possible.”
The number of outages continued to rise. As of 7:23 a.m. ET Sunday, more than 500,000 US customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.us, with more than 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee. Other affected states include Louisiana and New Mexico.
The Department of Energy orders backup utilities
The Department of Energy on Saturday issued an emergency order authorizing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to release backup generators to data centers and other large facilities, aimed at reducing blackouts in the state.
On Sunday, the department issued an emergency order authorizing grid operator PJM Interconnection to use “specified services” in the mid-Atlantic area, regardless of restrictions due to state laws or environmental permits.
The US National Weather Service has warned of an unusually wide-ranging and long-lasting winter storm that will bring heavy snow accumulation to the southeast, where it can be expected to “disabling catastrophic local impacts”.
Weather service forecasters predicted record freezing temperatures and dangerous wind chills to hit the Great Plains on Monday.
More than 9,600 US flights scheduled for Sunday were canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, and more than 4,000 flights were canceled for Saturday.
Airlines, grid operators are scrambling to prepare
Major U.S. airlines have warned passengers to stay alert for sudden flight changes and cancellations.
Delta Air Lines adjusted its schedule for Saturday, with additional cancellations this morning in Atlanta and on the East Coast, including Boston and New York City.
It will transport experts from cold regions to support snow removal teams and cargo at several airports in the south, the airline said.
JetBlue said that as of Saturday morning, it has canceled about 1,000 flights through Monday. United Airlines said it had canceled some flights to areas with the worst weather expected.
American power grid workers on Saturday took precautions to avoid blackouts.
Dominion Energy, whose Virginia operations include the largest cluster of data centers in the world, said if its snow forecast holds, the winter event could be among the biggest to affect the company.
