WASHINGTON: A winter storm that forecasters described as nearly unprecedented in its scope left about 60% of the US population under some kind of winter weather advisory or warning on Friday, causing tens of millions of Americans to endure subzero temperatures, blizzard conditions, power outages, and cancelled holiday gatherings.
According to the National Weather Service, more than 200 million people were under an advisory or warning on Friday. The graphic provided by the meteorological service "depicts one of the largest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever," according to forecasts.
The website PowerOutage, which tracks utility reports, estimates that power outages have left roughly 1.4 million households and businesses without power. Although the nation's largest public utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority, stopped rolling out blackouts on Friday afternoon, it nonetheless urged people to conserve energy.
As people attempt to get home for the holidays, roughly 5,000 flights inside, into, or out of the US were cancelled on Friday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
Wendell Davis, who plays basketball with a team in France and was waiting at O'Hare in Chicago on Friday due to a slew of flight cancellations, said, "We've just got to be positive."
From border to border, an enormous storm was present. As Canadian meteorologists warned of a probable once-in-a-decade weather catastrophe, WestJet cancelled all flights at Toronto Pearson International Airport beginning at 9 am on Friday.
And while they awaited the US Supreme Court's judgement on whether and when to lift pandemic-era limits that bar them from obtaining asylum, migrants in Mexico waited near the US border in exceptionally frigid weather.
At least five people died in collisions, according to officials, and several motorways were shut down. A major collision on the Ohio Turnpike involving at least 50 automobiles resulted in at least one fatality. A driver from Kansas City, Missouri, died on Thursday after swerving into a creek, while three other people died on Wednesday in separate accidents on slick roads in northern Kansas.
There were other crashes in Michigan as well, including one involving nine semi-trailers.
In some cases of ice conditions, Brent Whitehead claimed it took him 7.5 hours—instead of the normal six—to go from his home near Minneapolis to his parent's house outside Chicago on Thursday.
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