US storm leaves 850,000 people without electricity, 10,000 flights canceled

More than 850,000 clients in the US to the west of New Mexico remained without electricity, and more than 10,000 flights were canceled Sunday during a massive winter storm paralysing eastern and southern states with heavy snow and ice rainfall.

As the snow, freezing rain, and dangerous cold temperatures swept through two-thirds of the country's eastern temperatures on Sunday, the number of power outages continued to rise.

Since 10:47 a.m. on Sunday, more than 850,000 American clients were left without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with at least 290,000 in Tennessee and over 100,000 in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana.

Other affected states included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama.

More than 10,200 U.S. flights scheduled for Sunday were cancelled, according to the FlightAware flight site. Over 4,000 flights were canceled on Saturday.

Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport said airlines had cancelled all flights to the airport Sunday.

Meteorologists predicted the highly cold “temperature and dangerous cold winds” from the southern plains in the wake of the storm, bringing in “long dangerous effects on travel and infrastructure”.

Calling the <x0-> historical storms”, President Donald Trump approved on Saturday federal statements of emergency disasters in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.

“We will continue to monitor and stay in touch with all states on the road to this storm. Stay safe and warm”, Trump wrote in a post on the Social Truth. /Telegraph/