At least four people are reported to have been killed in weather-related incidents as powerful winter storms continued to create chaos across large swathes of the U.S.
Hundreds of thousands of customers in the East lost power on Wednesday, according to poweroutage.us, as strong winds and heavy rains sweep through the Northeast. Extreme weather also lashed the South and Midwest while blizzard conditions blasted the Northwest.
On Tuesday, multiple deaths were reported in the South amid the dangerous conditions. An 81-year-old woman was killed in Alabama after a suspected tornado flipped her mobile home several times. “She was in her mobile home, unfortunately, when she passed,” Houston County Deputy Coroner Andrew Byrd said, AL.com reports. A driver was also killed in Birmingham on Tuesday morning when a tree fell on their car.
Another driver in Georgia was killed by a tree crushing their car, while a fourth person died in North Carolina as storms hit a mobile home park there, authorities said. Two others were left in critical condition in the latter incident.
Hundreds more flights arriving into or departing from the U.S. have been canceled for Wednesday, according to FlightAware, following thousands of delays on Tuesday. Even Vice President Kamala Harris was affected, with Air Force Two being forced to divert from Joint Base Andrews to Dulles International Airport “due to inclement weather,” a spokesperson said.
Tornadoes also tore through communities in the Florida panhandle Tuesday, with Gov. Ron DeSantis declaring a state of emergency in 49 counties.
Torrential downpours that fell across the East Coast are also set to continue in some areas on Wednesday, NWS forecasters say, particularly from southern New England to southern Maine. Areas of Long Island were also at risk of flooding on Wednesday morning, while blizzard conditions are expected to remain in the Northwest.
