Ahead of a massive winter storm that has already lost power to over 160,000 electrical consumers as far west as Texas and threatens to cripple eastern regions with heavy snowfall, more than 4,000 flights were canceled in the United regions on Saturday. The eastern two-thirds of the country would get snow, sleet, and freezing rain on Sunday and into next week, along with dangerously low temperatures, according to forecasters. President Donald Trump authorized federal emergency disaster declarations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia on Saturday, calling the storms “historic.”
“We will keep an eye on this storm and communicate with every state in its route. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, “Remain Warm and Safe.” According to the Department of Homeland Security, weather emergencies have been issued in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Tens of thousands of individuals in the Southern states that are affected have lost power. Late on Saturday afternoon, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stated, “We have utility crews working to restore that as quickly as possible.” The frequency of power disruptions kept increasing. According to PowerOutage.com, as of 10:17 p.m. EST, over 160,000 US customers—mostly in Louisiana and Texas—were without energy.
In an effort to reduce blackouts in the state, the US Department of Energy announced on Saturday that it had issued an emergency order allowing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy backup generating resources to data centers and other significant facilities. The US National Weather Service issued a warning about an exceptionally large and long-lasting winter storm that is predicted to cause “crippling to locally catastrophic impacts” in the southeast US due to widespread, severe ice accumulation. By Monday, weather service forecasters expected dangerously severe wind chills and record-low temperatures to spread further into the US Great Plains region.
According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, almost 4,000 US flights that were scheduled for Saturday had been canceled as of 10:21 p.m. EST. Additionally, almost 9,400 U.S. flights that were initially scheduled for Sunday have been canceled. Passengers were cautioned by major US airlines to be on the lookout for sudden flight cancellations and adjustments. Delta Air Lines stated in an update on Saturday morning that it was still making schedule changes, with more cancellations in the morning for Atlanta and the East Coast, including Boston and New York City. It also stated that it was moving specialists from cold-weather hubs to assist baggage teams and de-icing at a number of southern airports. According to JetBlue, as of Saturday morning, it had canceled roughly 1,000 flights through Monday, and further cancellations might occur.
In an email, United Airlines stated that it was proactively canceling some flights in areas with the worst weather as part of its weather preparations. In an effort to prevent rotating blackouts, US electric grid managers increased their safety measures on Saturday. If Dominion Energy’s ice forecast is correct, it might be one of the biggest winter events to ever impact the utility’s operations. Dominion Energy’s Virginia operations include the world’s largest collection of data centers. Noem cautioned Americans to take measures when discussing the US government’s storm preparations at a press conference. Noem warned that it would be really cold. “Therefore, we would advise everyone to stock up on food and fuel, and we will overcome this together.”
