A historic snowstorm ploughing through the US has turned deadly, claiming five lives in New York City alone over the weekend. The devastating weather has forced the cancellation of some 10,000 flights, with another 2,000 expected to be grounded tomorrow, leaving passengers stranded at airports across the nation, reports The Metro.
LaGuardia Airport, which handles more than 400 flights a day, has been forced to close after being blanketed by heavy snow. The closure, reported by Fox Weather in the US, has contributed to what is considered one of the biggest flight cancellations in US history.
An astonishing 185,000,000 people are under winter weather alerts, with some parts of the country buried under as much as 12 inches of snow. A total of 23 states have declared a state of emergency, as power lines have been knocked out by ice and supermarket shelves have been stripped bare by panic-stricken shoppers.
Nearly a million without power, Tennessee hit hardest
Nearly a million people are without power nationwide, with Tennessee bearing the brunt of the outages. A staggering 330,000 homes in the state have been left in the dark as the snowstorm wreaks havoc on the electrical grid.
The five deaths in New York were confirmed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, though he did not specify if the deaths were weather-related. He said, “While we do not yet know their causes of death, there is no more powerful reminder of the danger of extreme cold and how vulnerable many of our neighbours are, especially homeless New Yorkers.”
According to NBC News, two men in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, have succumbed to hypothermia as the bitter cold takes its toll on the most vulnerable.
Panic shoppers leave supermarkets bareÂ
Earlier in the week, panic shoppers left supermarkets bare in a frantic race to stock up on supplies before the snowstorm hit. ABC News reported wind speeds around New York’s JFK Airport reaching 32mph, severely impacting visibility for drivers.
As if the snow and ice weren’t bad enough to endure, parts of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama are also under a tornado watch, compounding the misery for millions of Americans.
As the historic snowstorm continues to plough through the US, the nation braces itself for more extreme weather, power outages, and potential loss of life. With 20 states already under a state of emergency, the true extent of the damage and disruption caused by this devastating winter storm remains to be seen.