US storm cuts power to hundreds of thousands of homes and grounds flights

"More than 500,000 households and businesses in the US are without power and more than 9,600 flights are expected to be cancelled ahead of a monster winter storm that threatens to paralyse eastern states with heavy snowfall. Forecasters said snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously frigid temperatures would sweep the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday and into next week. Calling the storms historic, 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."

"The DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, at a news conference on Saturday, warned people to take precautions. It's going to be very, very cold, Noem said. So we'd encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together. She added: We have utility crews that are working to restore that as quick as possible."

"The number of outages continued to rise. As of 6.30am EST (1130 GMT) on Sunday, more than 400,000 US customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with 100,000 each in Mississippi and Texas. Other states affected included Louisiana, Tennessee and New Mexico. The Department of Energy on Saturday issued an emergency order authorising the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy backup generation resources at data centres and other major facilities, aiming to limit blackouts in the state."

A widespread winter storm will bring heavy snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously frigid temperatures across the eastern two-thirds of the United States, extending into next week. More than 500,000 households and businesses have lost power, and PowerOutage.us reported over 400,000 customers without electricity as of 6:30am EST, including about 100,000 each in Mississippi and Texas. More than 9,600 flights are expected to be cancelled. Federal emergency disaster declarations were approved for numerous states, and 17 states plus the District of Columbia declared weather emergencies. The Department of Energy authorised emergency grid actions and officials urged residents to stock up on fuel and food.

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