In fact, it’s deadly
It’s 50 degrees colder here this morning than at the mother ship in Southern California. The bomb cyclone has acquaintances stuck with thousands at O’Hare Airport in Chicago (where it’s a few degrees warmer right now) until at least Sunday. We haven’t seen sub-zero in these parts since I don’t know when.
But the power is still on (sorry, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham) and the coffee’s hot, so….
Minutes ago from NBC News:
At least 17 people have died in weather-related fatalities. The deaths occurred in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska and Ohio.
The number of power outages in the US rose dramatically in the last few hours.
More than 1.6 million utility customers were without power as of about 7:50 a.m. ET, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. That’s up from 840,000 customers at 4 a.m. ET.
The outages at 7:50 a.m. ET included:
- 595,400 in Southeastern states including North Carolina, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida
- 392,300 in New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island)
- 381,000 in other southern states including Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
- 222,000 in mid-Atlantic and northeastern states including New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware.
- More than 40,000 outages in other parts of the country.
Strong winds with gusts of 30-50 mph are forecast for much of the Midwest and Northeast Saturday, which could lead to additional outages.
The loss of power comes as many states are experiencing subzero temperatures, and hazardous road conditions make it difficult for crews to respond quickly.
The storm and the Arctic air mass will continue bedeviling most of the central, eastern and southern states for a fourth day with frigid cold and blinding snowstorms, forecasters said. There have been at least a dozen deaths, and tens of thousands of holiday travelers and motorists have been stranded. At one point, more than 1.5 million households were without power.
[…]
“When people get up Saturday morning, it’s going to be only Southern Florida that’s above freezing, at least east of the Rockies,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “It’s an event one doesn’t see more than once or twice in a lifetime, something you’ve got to see to believe the impact of the things that are forecast to happen.”
Please stay safe out there.
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