Over a million Americans are without power, and at least nine are dead as a result of the winter storm battering the southern and eastern United States.
Winter Storm Fern has blanketed the country with ice, snow, and freezing temperatures — a dangerous combination that has many concerned power outages will last into next week. Airlines across the United States have canceled the highest number of flights since the coronavirus pandemic, according to USA Today, with 4,500 flights within, into, or out of the United States delayed as of Sunday night, according to FlightAware.com. Over 11,000 flights have been canceled.
“The dangers aren’t over even with the precipitation ending,” National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Brian Hurley told USA Today. “A lot of the areas that are still getting the heavy ice, freezing rain, sleet and snow, will stay below freezing through the work week.”
“We worry about people having cold weather exposure with no power,” Hurley said.
The storm, which began on Friday, has hammered a stretch of the United States from Texas to the East Coast, dumping snow and freezing rain across hundreds of miles. Several states have declared emergencies over the impacts of the storm, including Tennessee, Indiana, and South Carolina, among others.
“Heavy snow will continue to spread across the Northeast this evening and overnight, with rapid accumulations (1–2”/hr) producing totals around 2 feet in parts of the region. Catastrophic ice impacts linger farther south with prolonged power outages,” the National Weather Service posted on Sunday afternoon.
Videos and images of the storm’s aftermath posted online have shown a glimpse of the damage, with downed power lines and trees blocking roads. Numerous closures and restrictions of schools, businesses, and local offices have been announced.
At least five of the dead were found outside in New York, but reports say they were not believed to be homeless.
“While we do not yet know their causes of death, there is no more powerful reminder of the dangers of the extreme cold, and how vulnerable how many of our neighbors are, especially homeless New Yorkers,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
Another exposure-related death was reported in Michigan and one in Austin, Texas. Two more were reported in Louisiana.