AFP Washington, United States
Millions of Americans took shelter from a major storm that battered the eastern part of the country with snow, ice, and strong winds, causing traffic disruptions, flight cancellations, and power outages in about 190,000 homes on Monday morning.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said the storm combines heavy snow, freezing rain and strong winds and impacted the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic coast before heading to New England and southern Canada.
Up to 30 centimeters of snow are expected across a swath of territory stretching from the northern Ohio Valley to the southern Great Lakes region, the NWS warned.
More than 80 million people are under weather alerts, US media reported.
Since mid-Sunday, about 235,000 customers had been without power in the Southeast, but by Monday morning that number had dropped to 190,000, according to the website PowerOutage.US.
In areas along the Appalachian Mountains, snow could fall at a rate of 2.5 cm per hour on Monday, while the frigid conditions could extend into Tuesday, according to the NWS.
The storm spawned tornadoes in the state of Florida (southeast) and flooding in parts of the coast. Frigid temperatures and powerful winds swept across the Carolinas (east) and the Appalachians.
Transportation was also severely disrupted. More than 3,000 flights within, to, or from the United States were canceled on Sunday, according to the website FlightAware, while another 4,200 were delayed.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina was the hardest hit, with 1,200 flights canceled, more than 90% of scheduled trips, according to the website FlightAware. Another 1,200 trips across the country had been canceled by early Monday.
State of emergency
The governor of the neighboring state of Georgia, Brian Kemp, had declared a state of emergency on Friday, and snowplows were working from before noon to clear roads.
Virginia and North Carolina also declared a state of emergency.
Virginia police said on their Twitter account that they responded to nearly 1,000 incidents on Sunday. "Mostly damaged cars. No fatalities reported," they stated.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper also stated on Twitter that up to 30 cm of snow had fallen in some areas by midday Sunday and that "significant ice formation is causing problems in the central part of the state." He further urged residents to avoid travel if possible.
Also in that state, the storm caused the roof of a hall in a university residence to collapse, according to ABC News, although there were no injuries.
The NWS reported that there were even bursts of snow in Pensacola, Florida, while Atlanta, usually mild, also had snowfall.
Some coastal flooding is expected, and the NWS warned that winds along the Atlantic coast could approach hurricane force.
Snow already caused problems in the northeastern United States earlier this month. A storm left hundreds of motorists stranded for more than 24 hours on I-95, the interstate highway that runs along the entire east coast of the country.
