An arctic blast is battering the southern US as a brutal winter storm blows from the Ohio River Valley to the mid-Atlantic on Monday morning.
The storm has disrupted travel, bringing heavy snow, ice and wind to the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. At least seven deaths tied to inclement weather were reported over the weekend in Missouri and Kansas.
Hundreds of flights have been canceled across airports in the Midwest and along the East Coast, and officials in several states are pleading with residents to keep off the roads unless there’s an emergency.
And, hundreds of thousands of customers have been left in the dark in Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and other states, according to the tracker PowerOutage.US.
“For some, this could be the heaviest snowfall in over a decade,” the NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center said in a statement.
Meanwhile, frigid air is blowing into the southern US, bringing single-digit “feels like” temperatures to much of Texas and causing officials to issue a freeze watch in orange-growing Florida.
Many states, including Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia, issued states of emergency ahead of the storm. Washington, D.C. is also under a snow emergency alert as of Sunday afternoon.
Cold weather also killed a person in Houston, Texas
An individual was found dead Monday morning at a bus stop in Houston, Texas.
The death was confirmed to be due to cold weather, officials told Fox 26.
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More than 4,100 flight delays are reported within, into, or out of the US
More than 4,100 flight delays were reported by the early afternoon on Monday, according to tracker FlightAware.
There have also been 1,837 cancelations within, into, or out of the country.
More than 302,000 customers in the eastern U.S. are without power
More than 302,000 customers in states across the eastern U.S. are without power during Monday’s winter storm.
However, numbers were on the decline in Virginia, which had the highest number of outages, according to online tracker PowerOutage.US.
Dominion Energy, the state’s utility company, said crews were working to restore power in the hard hit areas of Richmond, Farmville, and Altavista.
Missouri public works employee dies while removing snow
Officials in Missouri’s Jackson County announced Monday that 61-year-old Everett Carter had been struck and killed on Sunday while performing snow removal operations.
Carter had “dedicated 40 years of service to Jackson County, including the last 8 years with the Public Works team.”
“This is a heartbreaking loss for our entire Jackson County family,” Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. said in a press release, according to KSHB. “Everett Carter dedicated four decades of his life to serving our community with pride and professionalism. We will forever be grateful for his service and deeply miss his presence. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and colleagues during this incredibly difficult time.”
Source: independent.co.uk