A powerful winter storm sweeping across the United States has turned deadly, with five deaths recorded in New York City alone over the weekend, as widespread snow, ice and freezing temperatures cripple transport and power supplies across large parts of the country.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed the deaths on Sunday, January 25, though he said it was not yet clear whether they were directly caused by the extreme weather. “While we do not yet know their causes of death, there is no more powerful reminder of the danger of extreme cold and how vulnerable many of our neighbours are, especially homeless New Yorkers,” he said.
The storm has caused severe disruption to air travel, forcing the closure of LaGuardia Airport after it was blanketed by heavy snowfall. The airport, which typically handles more than 400 flights daily, was shut as conditions worsened, according to Fox Weather. Nationwide, about 10,000 flights have been cancelled so far, with a further 2,000 cancellations expected, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the country. The scale of the disruption has been described as one of the largest mass flight cancellations in US aviation history.
Around 185 million people are currently under winter weather alerts, with some areas receiving up to 12 inches of snow. At least 23 states have declared states of emergency as the storm stretches across much of the eastern and central United States. Ice accumulation has brought down power lines in several states, while panic buying ahead of the storm left supermarket shelves stripped bare in many cities.
Nearly one million people are without electricity nationwide, including about 330,000 homes in Tennessee alone. In Louisiana, NBC News reported that two men in Caddo Parish died from hypothermia amid the freezing conditions.
The storm has brought widespread snow and freezing rain to much of the eastern half of the country. ABC News reported snowfall totals of about eight inches in Arkansas and Kansas, 11 inches in Illinois and Ohio, 13 inches in Indiana, 12 inches in Missouri, seven inches in Oklahoma, six inches in New Jersey and five inches in Tennessee. Wind speeds near New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport were reported to be as high as 32 miles per hour, further reducing visibility and worsening travel conditions.
Scenes of disruption and resilience played out across major cities, with airport crews working to clear runways in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, while residents in some areas still found time to sled on snow-covered steps and streets. However, authorities continued to warn of the dangers posed by the extreme cold and icy conditions.
In addition to snow and ice, parts of Florida, Georgia and Alabama were placed under tornado watches, compounding the weather threat. States currently under a declared state of emergency include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, as officials brace for further impacts from the storm system.
