Ice covers trees and shrubs outside Walmart during extremely cold weather in Cleveland, Mississippi, Feb. 11, 2021.
Rory Doyle | Reuters
Hundreds of Walmart stores have been temporarily closed as winter weather is causing severe ice and power outages in Texas, the Southeast, and other parts of the country.
The big box retailer said 456 stores and clubs will be closed as of Tuesday afternoon. That represents nearly 9% of Walmart’s more than 5,300 stores and Sam’s Club locations.
Other retailers and restaurants also closed stores or sent workers home because of the extreme weather. Kroger was closing a number of locations and shortening opening hours at stores in Houston and Dallas, according to the website. Target kept 10 stores closed due to winter weather, most of them in Texas, a company spokeswoman said.
In Texas, more than 4.2 million people woke up without power on Tuesday as the state’s power grid failed to keep up with demand for heat during record low temperatures. Cold temperatures, snow and freezing rain are also forecast for many other regions, including New England, the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley, according to the National Weather Service.
The severe weather has disrupted service at the FedEx hub in Memphis and has resulted in delays in packages in the US, the company said. It has prevented pickup and delivery in certain cities, company spokeswoman Shannon Davis said. She said customers can track shipments and track the status of local service on the company’s website.
– CNBCs Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this story.