A major winter storm hits the eastern United States: millions of Americans have already taken shelter this Sunday!
Sylvie Claire / January 17, 2022
Millions of Americans took shelter Sunday as a major winter storm, according to the weather service, battered the eastern United States with snow and ice, causing power outages affecting at least 235,000 people.
The bulk of the storm is expected to occur in the evening. A major winter storm will hit the eastern United States between Sunday and Monday, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned, indicating that up to a foot of snow could cover an area from Tennessee and Georgia in the Southeast to Vermont and New York in the Northeast, accompanied by strong winds and freezing rain.
Winds could reach hurricane strength on the Atlantic coast, the NWS further warned.
Transportation has already been severely disrupted. Thousands of flights have been canceled and a portion of interstate highway I95 closed in North Carolina.
Motorists were warned of hazardous road conditions and heavy congestion from Arkansas (south) to Maine (northeast).
Some 2,900 domestic and international flights were canceled by mid-afternoon Sunday, according to FlightAware, and about 2,400 were delayed.
About 235,000 people were without power in the Southeast, including more than 150,000 in the Carolinas, according to PowerOutage.us.
The winter weather alert affects more than 80 million people, according to U.S. media reports.
The storm is expected to reach eastern Canada on Tuesday, the NWS estimates.