Power outages, school closures, frigid temperatures follow massive storm
A colossal winter storm barreled across an unusually large swath of the nation on Sunday, dumping snow and ice from Oklahoma to the Deep South to New England. The giant system knocked out power to more than a million customers, caused deaths in multiple states, prompted widespread school cancellations, ground travel to a halt and promised more uncertainty during the frigid days to come.
“This situation is expected to get worse before it gets better,” warned Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R), who implored residents to stay off perilous roads and detailed how some utilities had suffered “catastrophic damage” that could lead to prolonged outages.
Many areas across the East Coast had received 6 to 12 inches of snow and sleet by early Sunday afternoon, as more powder and destructive amounts of ice were expected to continue to accumulate overnight into Monday.
With ice weighing down trees and electrical lines throughout the South, power outages rose rapidly in places such as Tennessee, where as of Sunday evening, more than 300,000 remained without power, according to poweroutage.us. More than 100,000 customers were without power each in Mississippi and Louisiana.
The map of misery was vast and varied, even as the storm’s impacts were far from over.
More than 11,000 Sunday flights were canceled, along with at least 2,400 on Monday.
The Washington Post confirmed that at least six fatalities had been attributed to the storm. Two men died in Louisiana and one in Austin because of hypothermia, and three people who appeared to be homeless were found outdoors in New York, local officials said.
But public health risks remained for millions of Americans, as precipitation continued to accumulate Sunday evening, electricity failures mounted and the mercury continued to fall in many places. Far-reaching and fearsome cold was forecast to remain well after the snow and ice stopped falling. About 110 million people across the United States can expect to experience subzero temperatures through Friday.
State, local and federal officials implored people to exercise caution and common sense. They warned about the dangers of using generators indoors, the heightened potential for heart attacks while shoveling snow, the signs of hypothermia and the many risks of trying to drive on slick roads.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, who called the storm one of the most sprawling and impactful winter events in “possibly decades,” said Sunday on Fox News that its true toll remained unclear.
“This ice that has fallen will keep those lines heavy. Even if they haven’t gone down immediately, for several days we’re going to have the low freezing temperatures that will make sure that if we get a little bit of wind or we get some stress on those lines, they still continue to. could potentially, lose power, so we’re going to continue to monitor that,” Noem said, adding that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is coordinating to make sure states have the equipment they need even after the storm has passed.
The Washington, D.C., area saw less snow than some forecasts had anticipated. But a blanket of 3 to 7 inches in most areas was topped with 2 to 4 inches of sleet, creating significant disruptions.
All flights - more than 800 - were canceled at Reagan National Airport, said Crystal L. Nosal, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Washington Dulles International Airport had more than 400 cancellations, and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport had more than 400 flight cancellations by Sunday morning, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.
The storm also forced the detour or suspension of more than 100 Metro bus routes, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, along with the cancellation of some Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor.
The sleet also put a damper on at least one attempt to enjoy the weather in the nation’s capital. The Washington D.C. Snowball Fight Association on Sunday canceled its battle on the National Mall. Its snowball fight on Jan. 6, 2025, at Meridian Hill Park, drew hundreds of participants.
Despite such cancellations and the suffering the storm had delivered in so many places, Sunday also brought some scenes of serenity, joy and kindness.
At the Capitol, where sledding had once been banned, a crowd of children once again took advantage of the fresh snow on the west front lawn.
Meanwhile, more than 500 people in the District had signed up to be “snow heroes” to help shovel snow for elderly or disabled residents, according to the mayor’s office. Volunteers showed up at locations across the city Friday and Saturday to pick up their provisions: a shovel and salt, and a hat, gloves and scarf. On Sunday, they mobilized to clear sidewalks and driveways.
In North Carolina, a group of Buddhist monks braved snow and ice to continue a 2,300-mile “walk for peace” from Texas to Washington, D.C.. “Step by step, through cold and ice, the journey for peace goes on,” the group wrote on their Facebook page.
“It’s been years since I’ve seen this much snow here,” said Monica Reyes, 42, as she cleared off her car with a snow brush in Astoria, Queens. “I don’t even remember the last time we had a storm like this.”
Even amid the beauty of still-falling snow, the worries about how to navigate the days ahead loomed large.
Reyes, who works at a dental clinic, said she was fortunate that her office decided to remain closed Sunday. But she already was dreading her Monday commute, when she was expected to report to work in suburban Westchester County.
“Hopefully, I can make it to work, and hopefully it’s not going to be that messy,” Reyes said.
Some parents were having to think ahead about how to juggle work and snow days.
Ksenia Johnson, 34, an administrator at a hedge fund, wondered whether she would need to take Monday off if her caretaker was unable to make it to her Queens neighborhood to look after her two young children. “It’s amazing - it’s beautiful and it’s nature,” Johnson said of the blizzard, adding that she had relished past big snowstorms that swept through New York. “But it hits different when you have kids.”
By Sunday evening, the storm promised only more precipitation and more worry as it marched up the East Coast.
Pittsburgh recorded more snowfall than in any other day in more than 15 years. Sunday’s snow total reached 9.4 inches by midafternoon, according to the National Weather Service, the most since Feb. 6, 2010, when 9.7 inches fell during the second day of “Snowmageddon.”
The heaviest snow to come was expected to fall in a zone from St. Louis to Pittsburgh and from New York to Boston, creating dangerous travel conditions along Interstates 70, 80 and 95.
Across this stretch, forecasters predicted more than a foot of snow. By Monday morning, the largest accumulations were expected to be found in a zone including parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont.
But far to the South, where the storm already had battered communities large and small, there was a recognition that some of the toughest days might still lie ahead.
The Nashville Electric Service said its crews had been operating in continuous rotations, working as long as 16-hour shifts to respond to outages. But it was slow going, with ice weighing down lines and toppling trees, all while making roads treacherous to navigate. “This will be a longer outage which could span over days or longer,” the utility said.
A few hours’ drive to the southwest, the Tippah Electric Power Association, which serves roughly 14,000 customers in Mississippi and western Tennessee, said Sunday that its distribution system had “suffered catastrophic damage,” and that its linemen couldn’t work because of safety concerns.
“We will get through this, but we are looking at weeks instead of days to restore power to every member,” the utility said in an online post. “During this time, make sure to check on your neighbors, family and friends. We will all need to be prepared for a very long restoration period.”