Winter storm knocks out power in 24 U.S. states, upends travel

Brian K. Sullivan

and by Brian Wingfield

        bloomberg news
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            <p>Massive winter storm hits vast swathes of US and Canada, cutting power to over 1 million homes and businesses, canceling thousands of flights, icing roads and delivering last-minute holiday gifts hope is shattered.

More than 1.1 million customers in 24 states are out of power, according to PowerOutage.us. This includes Texas, New York and the hardest-hit North Carolina, with more than 165,000 homes and businesses without power. As of 11 a.m. New York time, more than 6,600 of his flights to and from the United States have been canceled, according to airline tracking service FlightAware.

Although packed with lots of snow and frigid temperatures, the storm is most notable for its size and speed. Snowfall, blizzard, freeze, and flood warnings and advisories extend to the central and eastern parts of the country, the northern perimeter, and the deep south. While rapidly traversing continents, it causes rapid temperature fluctuations. It was 55 degrees Fahrenheit in New York City at dawn. The forecast until 10:00 pm is around 10:00.

More than 200 million people (about 60% of the country) had some form of winter weather warning or advisory on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy snow is set to cover parts of the Great Lakes region and upstate New York and New England, following a front pushing over Pennsylvania and the Appalachian Mountains.

“This is a very big storm and it’s very widespread,” said Rich Otto, a forecaster for the National Weather Forecast Center. “This is the type of storm that happens every 20 to 30 years.”

The storm is centered over southwestern Ontario, Canada, intensifying as it sweeps east to achieve “bomb cyclone” conditions as central pressure plummets. Canadians are coping with travel hardships and power outages due to inclement weather, including flight cancellations at the nation’s busiest airports.

The storm could cause “significant disruption” at FedEx Express locations in Memphis, Tennessee and Indianapolis, delaying the arrival of holiday packages through Christmas, the shipping company said in a statement.

Amtrak has suspended some trains in the Midwest and northern New England.

In Texas, chilly winds dropped temperatures into the single digits in some areas, but residents turned the heaters up so high that the state’s grid set a record winter power usage. The cold has also shut down his oil refining capacity of more than 1.6 million barrels a day in the state and halted production of his two largest US refineries, Motiva Port, his Arthur and Marathon Galveston Bay. rice field.

New York has declared a statewide state of emergency, banning commercial traffic on the New York State Highway west of Rochester to the Pennsylvania border. Gov. Kathy Hochul urged those who are not yet on the road to wait until Sunday to travel. Schools are closed in Buffalo, where up to four feet of snow could fall, and government offices are also closed in New Jersey. I’m here.

With an estimated 112.7 million people planning to travel at least 50 miles by Jan. 2, weather warnings and advisories extend from Washington to Maine and south to the Gulf of Mexico, according to automotive group AAA.

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