Chris Dobry walked out of his residence Sunday and got here face-to-face with downed bushes and thick ice protecting power strains in his neighborhood of Greenwood, Mississippi.
“The ice storm in Mississippi is wreaking havoc,” Dobry wrote in a Facebook publish. “No power, lines down, and trees are literally breaking apart.”
He advised NCS that it “may take days” to get electrical energy again. In the meantime, he has been utilizing his gasoline fire for warmth.
Dobry’s expertise offers a style of the crippling aftermath of the massive winter storm that dumped snow and ice throughout the US, forsaking over a dozen deaths and at its peak knocking out power for over a million electrical clients amid bone-chilling cold.
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More than 15 storm- and cold-related deaths have been reported throughout a number of states, together with Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Some have been attributed to hypothermia, whereas others have been related to snow shoveling, officers say.
Ice from the storm has triggered main power outages throughout the southern US, significantly in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Meanwhile, over 200 million individuals are below cold alerts for frigid temperatures that can linger for days. The brutal cold is setting new file each day lows within the Plains. More information are anticipated to fall within the South and East because the cold lasts by way of a minimum of this week.
The most important infrastructure harm was throughout a swath of the South, the place ice made roads slick, snapped tree limbs and weighed down power strains. Northern Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee, specifically, are taking a look at prolonged restoration durations as a result of variety of downed bushes and power strains.
As of noon Monday, there have been about 750,000 electrical clients with out power, together with 250,000 in Tennessee, over 150,000 in Mississippi and over 120,000 in Louisiana.
Trees and power strains which can be nonetheless standing might nonetheless snap within the coming days below the continued pressure of the ice itself. Half an inch of ice – which 12 states recorded throughout this storm – can add as a lot as 500 kilos of weight to power strains.
High winds may also push bushes and power strains to their breaking level. Wind gusts as much as 25 mph are doable in components of the Southeast on Monday.
The breadth of the storm means a lot of the nation is dealing ultimately with its aftermath. Snow was on the bottom for simply over 56% of the Lower 48 states Monday, and a minimum of a foot of snow fell in 18 states, stretching from New Mexico up and over to Maine.
New York City’s Central Park recorded simply over 11 inches of snow, a tally of powder that introduced out Olympic snowboarder Shaun White’s daredevilry.
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Travel by highway will probably be treacherous, whereas air journey practically floor to a halt on Sunday. Airlines canceled greater than 11,600 flights on Sunday, in response to FlightAware, the largest cancellation day since Covid-19 shut down journey in March 2020. About 4,500 US flights have been canceled Monday too, affecting main airports stretching from Dallas to Boston.
Several main college districts will stay closed Tuesday because of inclement climate or highway circumstances. Students in Dallas, Memphis and Nashville won’t have class Tuesday. In Maryland, Montgomery County colleges will stay closed Tuesday, whereas colleges in Prince George’s County are scheduled to remain closed by way of Thursday.
Other districts – like Baltimore City Public Schools and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools – could have a distant studying day Tuesday.
The Weather Prediction Center had warned earlier than the storm of “catastrophic ice accumulation,” and that forecast held up for components of the South.
Repairs and restoration to electrical infrastructure in northern Mississippi will probably be “prolonged” because of widespread harm and unsafe circumstances, Northeast Mississippi Electric Power Association (NEMEPA) CEO Keith Hayward stated in a social media publish.
“The damage to the trees and vegetation is devastating,” Hayward stated.
Around 24,000 NEMEPA clients – greater than 75% of its clients – have been nonetheless with out power in northern Mississippi as of noon Monday, in response to PowerOutage.US. The storm has snapped poles and downed strains throughout the world.
Hayward stated this storm was worse than Mississippi’s historic 1994 ice storm, when outages took 23 days to revive. While fashionable upgrades might pace repairs in contrast with 1994, Hayward warned that restoration gained’t be fast. Crews quickly stopped work in a single day for security.
In Tennessee, this storm marked the very best variety of outages at one time within the Nashville Electric Service’s historical past, with a peak of 230,000, the utility stated in a Monday morning replace on X.
It surpasses the 200,000 outages reached throughout the damaging May 2020 derecho, which was one of many utility’s largest outages on file for the town.
The firm stated it had restored power to 60,000 clients within the Nashville metro space on Monday morning, however one other 175,000 have been nonetheless with out power.
Nashville residents must be ready to probably go with out power for as much as a week, stated Brent Baker, govt vice chairman and chief operations and improvements officer of the Nashville Electric Service.
“This is going to be a historic event,” Baker advised NCS’s Isabel Rosales on Monday. “Maybe a 20- or 30-year memory for most of us as we’ll look back at this. This is going to be something that will go down in history and be significant for our customers.”
The electrical energy service had deployed about 400 line employees to answer 153 damaged poles as of midafternoon Monday.
“This will be a weeklong event at a minimum that we’re going to be working on this, but we think if we make it through today’s cold weather and the trees continue to fall … we’ll start to make more progress as the days continue on,” Baker stated.