Hundreds of thousands without power as major winter storm hits US

BBC:

A dangerous winter storm has swept across the US, leaving at least three people dead and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Schools and roads across the country have been closed and flights have been cancelled as “life threatening” conditions stretched from Texas to New England, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

At least two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana, with state health officials linking their deaths to the storm, and another death was reported in Texas.

As of Sunday afternoon, about 900,000 households had lost power, according to poweroutage.us. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 flights were cancelled, FlightAware reported.

Widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain, which is a dangerous phenomenon where cooled rain droplets freeze instantly on surfaces, could last for days and could affect around 180 million Americans – more than half the population.

“The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts,” Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the BBC’s US media partner CBS News.

Louisiana’s Department of Health confirmed on Sunday that two men had died of hypothermia.

The mayor of Austin, Texas, said there had been an “exposure-related” death.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote in a post on X that at least five people in the city had died on Saturday but added their cause of death was yet to be determined.

He said, however, “It is a reminder that every year New Yorkers succumb to the cold”.