Washington/New York — The major ice and snow storm that affected two-thirds of the United States left more than a million users without power on Sunday and claimed the lives of at least five people across the country due to hypothermia, according to local media reports.
Data from the specialized website poweroutage.us showed 1,045,496 power outages.
The ice storm is wreaking havoc in the South of the US. In Tennessee, approximately 10% of the population, or over 338,000 users, are without power. In Texas, some 100,000 users were without power, while in Louisiana and Mississippi, 145,000 and 175,000 users, respectively, had no service, according to PowerOutage.us.
The storm, the largest ever recorded in the US according to many experts, dumped significant amounts of ice and snow early Sunday in the Mid-Atlantic region after passing through the Midwest and South.
The storm has left streets and roads difficult to navigate from Texas, through Oklahoma and Tennessee, to Pennsylvania and New York, due to the amount of snow and ice.
According to The Washington Post, at least five people died, two in Louisiana and three in New York, all from hypothermia.
Even lower temperatures are expected in the coming days, with lows on Tuesday on the East Coast reaching around -15°C (5°F), keeping authorities on alert due to the formation of thick layers of ice and the effects this will have on basic services and infrastructure.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has asked the population of the more than 20 states that have activated emergency protocols to avoid leaving their homes and has assured that the federal government is cooperating with states and electric companies to expedite repairs to the power grid.
The stormprompted some 4,000 flight cancellations to and from the US on Saturday. It caused another 10,000 flight cancellations on Sunday, according to the specialized website Flightaware.
Over 2,000 flights scheduled for Monday have already been canceled.
By Monday morning, the heaviest snowfall will happen in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced in a statement that there will be no in-person classes on Monday.
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