More than 10,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend were canceled as a monster storm started to wreak havoc on Saturday across much of the country and threatened to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways with dangerous ice.
Roughly 140 million people were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England. The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.
Meanwhile, 18 US states have declared a state of emergency as a powerful winter storm sweeps across the country, forcing the cancellation of thousands of flights.
The states that have declared emergencies include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland and Mississippi, reported Associated Press.
About 140 million people have received warnings of a winter storm stretching from New Mexico to New England. More than 3,300 flights were delayed or cancelled on Saturday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Nearly 6,000 were called off for Sunday.
In Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, more than 1,000 flights have been cancelled while more than 400 flights have been cancelled at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, reported BBC.
Some carriers like Delta Airlines, external and American Airlines, external are offering passengers the option to change their flights, in some cases without incurring extra fees, due to concerns about cancellations.
The National Weather Service forecast bulletin warned of heavy snowfall and the formation of a catastrophic ice band extending from eastern Texas to North Carolina.
Meteorologists have warned that the damage, especially in areas that will experience heavy freezing rain, could be similar to the damage caused by hurricanes.
Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane. Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight were moving toward the central part of the state on Saturday, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X. Low temperatures will be mostly in the single digits for the next few nights, with wind chills as low as minus 12 degrees Fahreinheit (minus 24 Celsius).
About 68,000 power outages were reported across the country at 8 a.m. ET, about 27,600 of them in Texas. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma, reported CBS News.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about 30cm of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted. Temperatures reached minus 29 F (minus 34 C) just before dawn in rural Lewis County and other parts of upstate New York after days of heavy snow.
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told residents on the social media platform X that the state Department of Transportation was pretreating the roads and told residents, “Stay home if possible.”
