A winter storm bearing down on the southern and eastern United States was set to affect more than 160 million people – half of the country’s population, authorities have warned.
The National Weather Service said the storm was likely to bring heavy snow, freezing rain and sleet beginning in the Southern Rockies on Friday, then stretching up through the Northeast over the weekend, source ALJAZEERA.
In Texas and Oklahoma, states less accustomed to snowy conditions, authorities were bracing for rains to turn roads icy on Friday, spreading salt, calling in local law enforcement and utility workers for backup and cancelling schools.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire posted online. “We’re hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.”
More than 800 flights within, into, or out of the US were already delayed or cancelled on Friday in advance of the storm, including at airports in Dallas, Atlanta and Oklahoma, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
“Travel is going to become more and more treacherous starting late Friday afternoon and lasting through the rest of the weekend,” the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, said in an online post.
The storm was expected to bring up a foot of snow (30 centimetres) stretching from Oklahoma to Washington, DC, New York and Boston, Massachusetts. It was then set to be followed by a blast of cold air across the Southern Plains to the Northeast, which could see wind chills drop to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit (-46 Celsius) in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota, in near-record conditions.
The cold weather was expected to prolong the impact of the snow and ice, delaying its thaw.
As of Friday, at least 14 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia – had declared emergencies.
