Kamal Ghorui
Pedestrians walk and ride their bike as heavy snow falls, Sunday (AP photo)
Over 800,000 were left without power in the US amid a massive winter storm that threatened to paralyse eastern states with heavy snowfall. Over 10,000 flights have also been cancelled as of Sunday.Power outages mounted as the storm intensified. By 10:18 am EST on Sunday, more than 800,000 customers nationwide were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, as reported by Reuters. Tennessee accounted for at least 300,000 outages, while Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana each reported over 100,000. Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama were also affected.The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued emergency orders over the weekend to bolster grid reliability. On Saturday, it authorized the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy backup generation at data centers and other large facilities. On Sunday, the DOE granted PJM Interconnection similar authority to operate specified resources across the mid-Atlantic, even if that meant bypassing certain state or environmental restrictions.Forecasters have warned that a powerful winter system bringing snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously cold temperatures is set to sweep across the eastern two-thirds of the United States from Sunday into the coming week.Describing the approaching storms as “historic,” President Donald Trump on Saturday approved federal emergency disaster declarations for several states, including South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana and West Virginia.The move allows federal assistance to support local response efforts as states prepare for severe weather conditions and potential disruptions.“We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm,” Trump had written in a post on Truth Social.Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies as a severe winter storm system grips large parts of the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said. Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem urged Americans to prepare for extreme conditions. “It’s going to be very, very cold,” Noem said. “So we’d encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together.“The National Weather Service warned that an unusually widespread and long-lasting winter storm would bring heavy ice accumulation across the Southeast, with “crippling to locally catastrophic impacts” possible. Forecasters also predicted record low temperatures and dangerous wind chills spreading into the Great Plains by Monday.Meanwhile, air travel faced major disruption. More than 10,100 flights scheduled for Sunday were canceled, according to FlightAware, following over 4,000 cancellations on Saturday.Airlines and grid operators moved quickly to prepare. Major carriers cautioned passengers to expect sudden schedule changes. Delta Air Lines adjusted its operations, adding cancellations in Atlanta and along the East Coast, including Boston and New York City, while shifting cold-weather specialists to southern airports to assist with de-icing and baggage handling. JetBlue said it had canceled around 1,000 flights through Monday, and United Airlines reported proactive cancellations in the hardest-hit regions.Electric utilities also heightened precautions. Dominion Energy said that if ice forecasts hold, the storm could rank among the most significant winter events ever to affect its Virginia service area, which includes the world’s largest concentration of data centers.
