More than 1 million Americans lose power as monster winter storm sweeps across the US
More than 1 million Americans were without power Sunday afternoon as a historic winter storm barreled across large portions of the U.S.
As of 2:35 p.m. ET, Tennessee was the hardest-hit state, with approximately 306,700 customers experiencing outages. Mississippi followed with about 175,300 outages, while Louisiana reported roughly 145,100, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
Significant outages were also reported in Texas, where about 93,000 people lost power, as well as Georgia with 80,700, Kentucky with 69,500, West Virginia with 35,500, and Alabama with 31,800.
MASSIVE WINTER STORM STRAINS US POWER GRID AS OPERATORS SCRAMBLE TO AVOID BLACKOUTS
The outage numbers climbed throughout the day.
Earlier Sunday morning, as of 10:47 a.m. ET, roughly 850,000 Americans were without power, according to Reuters, citing PowerOutage.us.
At that time, at least 290,000 customers in Tennessee and more than 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana were affected. Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama also reported widespread outages.
The massive winter storm has placed severe strain on the U.S. power grid, prompting operators to scramble to prevent broader blackouts.
The storm also severely disrupted air travel. More than 10,000 U.S. flights were canceled on Sunday, according to FlightAware, following over 4,000 cancellations on Saturday.
STORE SHELVES WIPED CLEAN AS AMERICANS BRACE FOR MASSIVE WINTER STORM
Spanning roughly 2,000 miles, the storm is expected to peak on Sunday, with heavy snowfall forecast to continue from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast through Monday, the National Weather Service said.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued emergency orders to prevent power outages, according to Reuters.
On Saturday, the agency allowed Texas grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to use backup generators at major facilities, including data centers.
On Sunday, it authorized PJM Interconnection to operate certain power resources in the mid-Atlantica cross the mid-Atlantic region regardless of state and environmental restrictions, Reuters reported.
US AIRLINES ISSUE TRAVEL WAIVERS, ANNOUNCE CANCELLATIONS AHEAD OF WIDESPREAD WINTER STORM
President Trump on Saturday approved federal emergency disaster declarations for South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.
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"We are working closely with FEMA, Governors, and State Emergency Management teams to ensure the safety of everybody," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. "Stay Safe, and Stay Warm!"