US shivers as winter storm leaves 21 dead, millions without power
- Brutal cold engulfs vast swathes of the United States, spawning deadly tornadoes
- Some people died in traffic accidents, others from carbon monoxide poisoning
The storm that overwhelmed power grids and immobilised the Southern Plains carried heavy snow and freezing rain into New England and the Deep South and left behind painfully low temperatures. Wind-chill warnings extended from Canada into Mexico.
Biden on Tuesday vowed to provide additional emergency resources for those affected by the “historic storm” and thanked “road workers, highway patrol officers, and first responders who are taking swift action in horrific conditions to save lives”.
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US winter storm leaves at least 21 dead and millions without power
The worst US power outages were in Texas, affecting more than 2 million homes and businesses. More than 250,000 people also lost power across parts of Appalachia, and another 200,000 were without electricity following an ice storm in northwest Oregon, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outage reports. Four million people lost power in Mexico.
Texas officials requested 60 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and planned to prioritise hospitals and nursing homes. The state opened 35 shelters to more than 1,000 occupants, the agency said.
More than 500 people sought comfort at one Houston shelter. Mayor Sylvester Turner said other warming centres were closed because they lost power.
After losing power Monday, Natalie Harrell said she, her boyfriend and four kids sheltered at a Gallery Furniture store in Houston. The warming centre at the store provided people with food, water and power to charge essential electronics.
“It’s worse than a hurricane,” Harrell said. “I think we are going to be more days without light, that is what it seems like.”
Utilities from Minnesota to Texas implemented rolling blackouts to ease the burden on power grids straining to meet extreme demand for heat and electricity.
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Blackouts lasting more than an hour began around dawn Tuesday for Oklahoma City and more than a dozen other communities, stopping electric-powered space heaters, furnaces and lights just as temperatures hovered around minus 22 degrees Celsius (minus 8 Fahrenheit).
Oklahoma Gas & Electric rescinded plans for more blackouts but urged users to set thermostats at 20 degrees, avoid using major electric appliances and turn off lights or appliances not in use.
Nebraska’s blackouts came amid some of the coldest weather on record: in Omaha, the temperature bottomed out minus 30 degrees, the coldest in 25 years.
The Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities covering 14 states, said the blackouts were “a last resort to preserve the reliability of the electric system as a whole”.
‘Life-threatening’ snowstorm batters northeast US
In the Southeast, a low-pressure system that developed along the Arctic front created fuel for storms that unleashed at least four tornadoes, said meteorologist Jeremy Grams of the weather service’s Storm Prediction Centre in Norman, Oklahoma.
The tornado that hit North Carolina’s Brunswick County was an EF3 with winds estimated at 257km/h (160mph), the weather service said on Twitter.
Three people died and 10 were injured when the tornado tore through a golf course community and another rural area just before midnight Monday, destroying dozens of homes.
Authorities in multiple states reported deaths in crashes on icy roads.
In Texas, three young children and their grandmother died in the Houston-area fire, which likely began while they were using a fireplace to keep warm during a power outage, a fire official said. And in Oregon, authorities on Tuesday confirmed the deaths four people last weekend in the Portland metro area of carbon monoxide poisoning.
At least 13 children were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at Cook Children’s Medical Centre in Fort Worth, the hospital said, which warned that families were “going to extreme measures to warm their homes” – with propane or diesel-burning engines and generators, gas ovens and stovetops.
Other Texas deaths included a woman and a girl who died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Houston at a home without electricity from a car left running in an attached garage, and two men found along Houston-area roadways who likely died in subfreezing temperatures, law enforcement officials said.
In western Tennessee, a 10-year-old boy died after falling into an ice-covered pond on Sunday during a winter storm, fire officials said.
Several cities had record lows: in Minnesota, the Hibbing/Chisholm weather station registered minus 39 degrees. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, dropped to minus 26 degrees.
Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters
