A winter storm bearing down on the southern and eastern United States was set to affect more than 180 million people – half of the country’s population, authorities have warned.
The National Weather Service said the storm was likely to bring heavy snow, freezing rain and sleet beginning in the Southern Rockies on Friday, then stretching up through the Northeast over the weekend.
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In Texas and Oklahoma, states less accustomed to snowy conditions, authorities were bracing for rains to turn roads icy on Friday, spreading salt, calling in local law enforcement and utility workers for backup and cancelling schools.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire posted online. “We’re hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.”
More than 800 flights within, into, or out of the US were already delayed or cancelled on Friday in advance of the storm, including at airports in Dallas, Atlanta and Oklahoma, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
“Travel is going to become more and more treacherous starting late Friday afternoon and lasting through the rest of the weekend,” the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, said in an online post.
The storm was expected to bring up a foot of snow (30 centimetres) stretching from Oklahoma to Washington, DC, New York and Boston, Massachusetts. It was then set to be followed by a blast of cold air across the Southern Plains to the Northeast, which could see wind chills drop to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit (-46 Celsius) in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota, in near-record conditions.
The cold weather was expected to prolong the impact of the snow and ice, delaying its thaw.
As of Friday, at least 14 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia – had declared emergencies.
“We are used to winter in New York,” the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, said at a news briefing. “We think we are ready for this, but when you get complacent, that’s when you get into trouble.
“This is a very dangerous combination of heavy snow and extreme, extreme cold temperatures, and the risks are so intense that I’m declaring a state of emergency throughout the state of New York,” she said, adding the designation allows local jurisdictions to deploy state resources.
In Virginia, Governor Abigail Spanberger told residents to prepare for days without power or the ability to leave their neighbourhoods.
The Democrat also made reference to Trump’s mass deportation drive, urging residents not to be afraid to access emergency services out of concern for immigration enforcement.
“If someone needs to call police, having a health emergency needs to call first responders, please do so and ensure the safety of your friends, neighbours and family. And, stay warm,” Spanberger said.
Arkansas Department of Transportation spokesperson Dave Parker pleaded for people to be patient and stay home if possible once the storm hits.
“We’ve got everything working against us,” he said, according to The Arkansas Advocate. “We’ve got freezing rain, ice, snow, sleet, bitter cold temperatures, a long storm – meaning several days.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), meanwhile, urged US residents to stock up on supplies ahead of the storm, plan for school and work disruptions, and charge power banks and carry backup medicine.
States in the storm’s path reported a flurry of shopping, as thousands of businesses were expected to shutter when the snow hit.
Speaking to The Associated Press news agency outside of a busy grocery store in Dallas, Texas, Kennedi Mallard and Frank Green said some shelves had already been emptied.
“No water, no eggs, no butter, no ground meat,” Green said.
For his part, US President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social account to point to the cold weather as evidence against rising global temperatures caused by climate change.
“WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING,” Trump wrote, inaccurately conflating the temporary weather condition with the long-term average of weather patterns of climate.
