1 of 3 | A young boy sleds down the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., during a winter storm on Sunday. Heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain are expected across large parts of the United States as the dangerously cold weather causes major power outages and travel disruptions. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
At least 11 people are dead, an estimated 12,000 flights have been canceled and nearly 900,000 people are without power as a wicked weekend winter storm rolls across the country.
Winter Storm Fern has spread ice and heavy snow across 34 states in the last two days, having already buried areas from Arizona, Texas and other parts of the Midwest and Deep South before pushing into the Northeast overnight Saturday.
Forecasts on Sunday morning predicted that more snow, sleet and freezing rain were expected across a wide swath of the eastern half of the United States, warning of extensive tree damage and widespread power outages that could potentially last for days, The Weather Channel reported.
In a three-day short-range forecast discussion, the National Weather Service said it expects heavy snow to fall in areas from the Ohio Valley to the entire Northeast and potentially “catastrophic” ice accumulation from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions.
Forecasters also said there is a “slight risk” of severe thunderstorms over the Central Gulf Coast on Sunday.
The powerful storm was to sweep across the eastern two-thirds of the country, it said.
On Sunday, the forecasters warned that heavy snow would continue to spread across the Northeast overnight, accumulating up to 2 feet of snow in some parts of the region.
Roughly 200 million people, more than half of the nation’s population, have been affected by the winter weather, which has sent wind chills into the negative 20s and sustained temperatures as much as 40 degrees below their average, NBC News reported.
There have been at least 11 deaths reported throughout the affected region.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters during a news conference Sunday that at least five people in the city were found dead outside on Saturday.
Tennessee health officials late Sunday reported three weather-related deaths, one in each of Crockett, Haywood and Obion counties.
In Louisiana, state health officials confirmed in a statement two storm-related deaths in Caddo Parish, near northeastern Texas. The deceased were identified as two men, their ages unknown, with the cause of death presumed to be hypothermia.
In Emporia, Kan., police early Saturday issued a missing person notice for Rebecca Rauber, who had left a local bar on foot without her purse, phone or jacket late Friday.
On Sunday, officers, with the assistance of a police canine, located the body of a woman in a wooded area about 300 yards from where she was last scene.
“Rebecca may have succumbed to hypothermia early on in her disappearance as she was covered in snow due to the snowstorm that became heavy on Saturday,” the Emporia Police Department said in a statement.
A man was also found dead in the parking lot of an abandoned gas station after 6:15 a.m. CST in Austin, Texas, a Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services spokesperson confirmed to UPI in an email. The man was pronounced dead at 6:27 a.m.
“Due to the circumstances, the presumed cause is hypothermia,” the spokesperson said, adding that a medical examiner will make the final determination concerning the cause of death.
Indiana State Police Sgt. John Perrine said Sunday evening that troopers responded to 96 crashes, 67 slide-offs and 249 motorists stuck in the snow in the last 24 hours.
In Greensburg, Ind., firefighters performed an ice rescue of a driver from a vehicle that had become submerged in a pond.
The driver sustained only minor injuries, authorities said.
Aside from the East Coast getting blanketed with snow, icing in states from Texas to Tennessee, which have been hardest hit by blackouts.
The Washington Post reported that officials are concerned about an area from northeast Georgia north to the Carolinas and Virginia that could be at risk for blackouts amid expected ice and snow storm over the next 24 hours.
Around 9:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, FlightAware reported that more than 19,800 flights had been delayed and more than 12,300 flights cancelled.
Nearly 900,000 customers were without power across the U.S. South going into the East Coast, with more than 284,250 without power in Tennessee alone, according to PowerOutage.us.
Through Monday morning, the National Weather Service has predicted up to 18 inches of snow over New England and at least half an inch of freezing rain in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio/Tennessee Valleys.
Areas from the Southern Plains to the Northeast will also contend with “bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills” that are expected to cause havoc on travel and infrastructure for a “prolonged period,” the agency predicted.
Lake effect snow will also be seen moving southeast from Central Canada, while showers and severe thunderstorms could potentially menace the Central Gulf Coast, forecasters said.
Wicked winter weather whips across United States
Melody Ashby jumps into a snow pile as her sister and mother look on, Sunday in Wadsworth Ohio. Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo
