More than 400,000 customers in the United States, as far west as Texas, were without power and more than 9,600 flights were expected to be canceled on Sunday, ahead of a severe winter storm that threatened to paralyze eastern states with heavy snow.
Forecasters said snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously cold temperatures would sweep the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday and throughout the week.
Calling the storms “historic,” President Donald Trump on Saturday approved federal 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 States in the path of this storm. Stay safe, and stay warm,” Trump wrote in a post on the Truth social network.
Catastrophic impact
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, the Department of Homeland Security said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, in a press conference Saturday, warned Americans to take precautions.
“It’s going to be very, very cold,” Noem said. “So we encourage everyone to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we’re going to get through this together.”
“We have utility crews that are working to restore as quickly as possible,” Noem added.
The number of blackouts continued to increase. As of 6:30 a.m. EST (1130 GMT) on Sunday, more than 400,000 U.S. customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.us, with 100,000 in Mississippi and 100,000 in Texas. Other states affected were Louisiana, Tennessee and New Mexico.
Order reserve resources
The Department of Energy on Saturday issued an emergency order authorizing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy standby generation resources at data centers and other major facilities, with the goal of limiting blackouts in the state.
On Sunday, the DOE issued an emergency order authorizing grid operator PJM Interconnection to launch “specific resources” in the Mid-Atlantic region, regardless of limits imposed by state laws or environmental permits.
The National Weather Service warned of an unusually expansive and long-lived winter storm that would bring widespread heavy ice accumulation to the Southeast, where “crippling to locally catastrophic impacts” can be expected.
Forecasters predicted record cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills descending on the Great Plains region on Monday.
More than 9,600 U.S. flights scheduled for Sunday were canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, with more than 4,000 flights canceled on Saturday.
Airlines and network operators prepare in a hurry
Major U.S. airlines warned passengers to remain alert for sudden flight changes and cancellations.
Delta Air Lines adjusted its schedule Saturday, with additional morning cancellations for Atlanta and along the East Coast, including in Boston and New York.
The airline said it would move experts from cold weather operations centers to support de-icing and baggage teams at several southern airports.
JetBlue said as of Saturday morning it had canceled about 1,000 flights through Monday.
United Airlines said it had proactively canceled some flights in places with the worst weather forecasts.
US power grid operators on Saturday stepped up precautions to avoid rotating blackouts.
Dominion Energy, whose operations in Virginia include the largest collection of data centers in the world, said that if its ice forecast came true, the winter event could be one of the largest to affect the company.
