A massive winter storm swept across the United States, dumping snow and freezing rain on New Mexico and Texas on Saturday. The storm, moving towards the northeast, has affected tens of millions of Americans.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that up to 240 million Americans could be affected by the storm.
After the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast huge snowfall in some areas and possibly “catastrophic” ice accumulations, shoppers stripped supermarket shelves.
At least 16 states and the US capital Washington have declared states of emergency. “Take this storm seriously, folks,” the NWS said on X, predicting an “astonishingly long swath” of snowfall from New Mexico to Maine.
The US federal government preemptively announced that offices in Washington would be closed on Monday.
According to tracker FlightAware, more than 3,900 flights in and out of the United States were canceled on Saturday alone, and more than 3,000 others were delayed.
Nearly 130,000 US customers were without power as of Saturday afternoon, according to tracking site poweroutage.us, with over 50,000 reported in both Texas and neighboring Louisiana.
Snow also hit Oklahoma and Arkansas, where some spots already recorded six inches (15 centimeters) on the ground, the NWS said.
After battering the country’s southwest and central areas, the storm system was expected to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states before a frigid air mass settles in.
“The snow/sleet impacts will linger well into next week with rounds of re-freezing that keeps surfaces icy and dangerous to both drive and walk on for the foreseeable future,” the weather service said.
