Winter Storm Brings Emergency Declarations in 12 States and Canceled Flights

A large winter storm spread across the southern and eastern United States on Saturday, prompting President Donald Trump to approve emergency declarations for at least a dozen states and leading airlines to cancel thousands of flights, the Associated Press reported. The National Weather Service forecast widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from Saturday through Monday, stretching from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England.

About 140 million people, more than 40 percent of the country’s population, were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England, according to the AP report, which was published on PBS NewsHour. Forecasters expected 1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington through New York and Boston. Al Jazeera described the affected area as spanning about 2,000 miles and said authorities were warning of “catastrophic ice accumulation” from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

Ice is the main worry in the South. Georgia could see “perhaps the biggest ice storm we have expected in more than a decade,” state meteorologist Will Lanxton told the AP, adding that “ice is a whole different ballgame than snow.” Forecasters told the AP the damage from the storm, particularly in areas covered by ice, could rival that of a hurricane, and that the snow and ice would be very slow to melt. Georgia officials urged residents in the northern part of the state to be off the roads by sundown Saturday and ready to stay put for at least 48 hours. Crews with 1,800 workers on 12-hour shifts had begun treating highways with brine after midnight, the AP reported.

The federal government moved supplies ahead of the storm. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had pre-positioned commodities, staff and search-and-rescue teams in numerous states, according to the AP and Al Jazeera. “We just ask that everyone would be smart - stay home if possible,” Noem said, the AP reported. Al Jazeera said nearly 20 states and the District of Columbia had declared their own weather emergencies.

States also restricted travel. New Jersey limited commercial vehicle travel and set a 35 mph speed limit on highways, the AP reported. Gov. Mikie Sherrill said, “We are expecting a storm the likes of which we haven’t seen in years.” NBC News’s live coverage also reported speed limits cut to 35 mph on New Jersey interstates and state highways, with restrictions on large trucks.

Air travel was hit hardest early. FlightAware data cited by the AP showed about 13,000 flights canceled across the country for Saturday and Sunday combined. All Saturday flights were canceled at Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City, and Dallas-Fort Worth International saw more than 700 departures canceled Saturday. By late Saturday afternoon nearly all Sunday departures from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport had been canceled, the AP reported. Disruptions also hit airports in Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte.

Power outages had so far been limited. The AP, citing poweroutage.us, counted about 120,000 customers without electricity along the storm’s path on Saturday, including about 50,000 each in Texas and Louisiana, and about a third of the 16,000 residents of Shelby County, Texas, had lost power.

Bitter cold added to the danger in the Midwest. The AP reported wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, with Rhinelander, Wisconsin, recording minus 36 on Saturday morning, its coldest reading in almost 30 years. Forecasters expected extreme cold to follow the storm, and Al Jazeera said officials were warning of life-threatening cold lasting about a week afterward, especially in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest.

School districts in Philadelphia and Houston closed for Monday, as did the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Mississippi, and churches moved services online, the AP reported.