Winter storm: Blizzard continues to pummel US; at least 18 reported dead

A powerful winter storm continued to pummel much of the U.S. on Saturday, with blizzards, freezing rain and life-threatening cold for people traveling during the Christmas holiday.

>> Read more trending news

More than 175 million people nationwide remain under wind chill alerts Saturday morning, CNN reported. That includes both wind chill warnings and advisories. The storm continues to affect most of the eastern, central and southern states for a fourth day, according to The New York Times.

Update 9:45 p.m. EST Dec. 24: A very cold winter storm has reportedly killed at least 18 people across the country, according to The Associated Press. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses are also without power.

The deaths have been connected to exposure, car crashes, falling tree limbs and other effects of the storm, according to the AP.

At least three people died in the Buffalo, New York, area including two people who had medical emergencies in their homes, according to the AP. Those two were unable to be saved because emergency crews were not able to reach them in time due to the blizzard conditions.

- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Update 3:52 p.m. EST Dec. 24: The number of people without power as a result of a sweeping winter storm across the U.S. is beginning to decline.

According to PowerOutage, a website that tracks utility outages nationally, 690,235 people were without power as of 3:26 p.m. EST. The most significant number of outages Saturday afternoon are in the New England area, with more than 266,000 people still in the dark.

Maine has nearly 180,000 people still without power.

Update 1:05 p.m. EST Dec. 24: Officials in Buffalo have reported a third death due to blizzard-like conditions in upstate New York.

Buffalo officials said that police became aware of a dead body at an intersection in the city, WIVB-TV and WGRZ-TV reported.

“Due to blizzard conditions, police are coordinating efforts to retrieve the body,” officials said in a statement.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on Saturday morning said two people died in Cheektowaga in separate incidents Friday due to the blizzard.

During a news conference on Saturday, Gov. Kathy Hochul -- a Buffalo native -- said she will ask the federal government to declare an emergency in the state.

“I’ll be asking the federal government for a declaration of emergency that’ll allow us to seek reimbursements for the extraordinary expenses of all the overtime and the fact that we brought in mutual aid from other parts of the state,” Hochul told reporters. “We’ve deployed individuals -- the utility crews have come but also making sure that we have all the vehicles we need.”

Hochul declared a state of emergency on Thursday before the storm hit, CNN reported.

Update 12:18 p.m. EST Dec. 24: Snowstorms and power outages have affected the sports world. Kickoff for Saturday’s game between the host Tennessee Titans and the Houston Texans was delayed for one hour at the request of Nashville Mayor John Cooper, The Tennessean reported.

Kickoff has been moved from noon to 1:02 p.m. CST, as the city of Nashville deals with cutbacks in power in the aftermath of extremely cold temperatures in Middle Tennessee.

Update 11:22 a.m. EST Dec. 24: According to FlightAware, a flight-tracking site, there have been more than 1,900 cancellations in the U.S. on Saturday morning due to the extreme winter weather nationwide.

More than 3,300 flights have also been delayed.

CNN reported that the airports most affected by delays, including arrivals and departures, are Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Denver International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Update 10:17 a.m. EST Dec. 24: According to Pennsylvania-based PJM Interconnection, an emergency call was issued for consumers to refrain from using electricity unnecessarily.

The grid operator, which serves 65 million people across the eastern U.S., asked residents in 13 states to set lower thermostat levels and curtail usage of major appliances, The Associated Press reported.

Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, announced “emergency outages,” WSOC-TV reported.

“We have begun short, temporary power outages. These emergency outages are necessary to protect the energy grid against longer, more widespread outages. We appreciate your patience,” the energy provider said in a tweet.

Update 10:02 a.m. EST Dec. 24: The number of people without power as a result of a sweeping winter storm across the U.S. rose to more than 1.75 million people.

The website PowerOutage, which tracks utility outages nationally, reported that 1,757,582 people were without power as of 9:40 a.m. EST. The most significant number of outages Saturday morning in the Southeast, with more than 705,000 people without power. North Carolina remains the hardest-hit state, with more than 476,000 people still in the dark.

According to the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, a record low of 7 degrees was set, breaking the mark of 8 degrees set in 1983.

The South region has more than 392,000 people without power, with more than 303,000 in Tennessee without electricity.

In New England, the majority of residents affected by power outages live in Maine, where more than 225,000 are without power. The entire region has nearly 381,000 people in the dark.

Update 8:33 a.m. EST Dec. 24: More than 1.45 million people are without power as a winter storm continued to blanket the U.S. on Saturday.

The website PowerOutage, which tracks utility outages nationally, reported the most significant number of outages Saturday morning in the Southeast, with more than 655,000 people without power. North Carolina is the hardest-hit state, with more than 458,000 people still in the dark.

More than 294,000 people are without power in Tennessee, according to PowerOutage.

Update 8:25 a.m. EST Dec. 24: The number of people in the U.S. under a winter storm warning has been revised to 4.3 million, according to the National Weather Service. That is a large drop from the more than 28 million under the warning earlier Saturday, The New York Times reported.

Approximately 4.6 million people nationwide remain under a blizzard warning, according to the newspaper.

Update 7:50 a.m. EST Dec. 24: In Buffalo, New York, the National Weather Service said that blizzard conditions in the area “will make travel impossible” at least until 8:30 a.m.

Original report: More than 28 million people in the U.S. are still under a winter storm warning early Saturday, the newspaper reported. More than 7 million were under a blizzard warning, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm, which put approximately 60% of the U.S. population under some form of winter weather advisory or warning, was blamed for nearly 805,000 power outages by early Saturday morning. The website PowerOutage, which tracks utility outages nationally, reported the most significant number of outages Saturday morning in New England, where more than 406,000 customers remained without power. Maine was the hardest-hit state, with more than 249,000 customers still in the dark as of Saturday morning.

At one point, more than 1.5 million people were without power nationwide, the Times reported.

The storm has been blamed for at least a dozen deaths, and thousands of holiday travelers have been stranded, according to the newspaper.

Nearly 1,400 flights had been canceled as of early Saturday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. That followed nearly 6,000 cancellations on Friday, the Times reported.

The coldest wind chills Saturday morning remain across the Midwest, CNN reported. Temperatures in that region have a wind-chill factor of up to minus 30 degrees.

Cities as far south as Atlanta are experiencing negative wind chills early Saturday, according to the news organization.

It was 7 degrees at 6 a.m. EST in Atlanta, according to the National Weather Service. The agency is predicting a high of 27 or 28 degrees, which would be a record low. The city typically has high temperatures in the mid-to-high 60s, with lows in the upper 30s, according to the Times.

“When people get up Saturday morning, it’s going to be only southern Florida that’s above freezing, at least east of the Rockies,” Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the newspaper. “It’s an event one doesn’t see more than once or twice in a lifetime, something you’ve got to see to believe the impact of the things that are forecast to happen.”

At 5:30 a.m. EST, the temperature in suburban Tampa, Florida, was 33 degrees. It dipped below freezing 30 minutes later, with temperatures recorded at 31 degrees.

Temperatures were recorded in the 20s and 30s Saturday morning in the region, WFLA-TV reported.

The thermometer plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, The Associated Press reported. The lowest temperature recorded this week in Kansas City, Missouri, was 4 degrees below zero, before wind chill was factored in, according to The Kansas City Star.

According to the National Weather Service, freezing rain pounded much of the Pacific Northwest.

Police said that three people have died in weather-related traffic accidents in Kansas, CNN reported. Nearly 50 vehicles were involved in a pileup on the Ohio Turnpike on Friday, with the Ohio State Highway Patrol confirming at least three fatalities.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed two deaths Friday morning, with a third fatality posted in Montgomery County due to a vehicle accident, CNN reported. In Missouri, one person died after their caravan slid off an icy road and into a frozen creek, according to the cable news outlet.

©2022 Cox Media Group