OCEAN ISLE BEACH, NC (AP) – A winter storm that left millions without power in record-breaking cold weather claimed more lives, including three people found dead after a tornado hit a North Carolina resort and four family members who died in a Houston house fire while using a fireplace to keep warm.
The storm That overwhelmed the power grids and immobilized the Southern Plains on Tuesday carried heavy snow and freezing rain to New England and the Deep South, leaving painfully cold temperatures. Wind chill warnings stretched from Canada to Mexico.
In total, at least 20 deaths have been reported. Other causes included car accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning. The weather also threatened to affect the country’s vaccination efforts against COVID-19. President Joe Biden’s administration said delays in the shipping and delivery of vaccines were likely.
Brunswick County, North Carolina, had little knowledge of the dangerous weather, and a tornado warning was not issued until the storm was already on the ground.
The National Weather Service was “very surprised at how quickly this storm got worse … and at the time of night, when most people are at home and in bed, it creates a very dangerous situation,” said Ed Conrow, director of the United States. emergency services.
In Chicago, a foot and a half (46 centimeters) of new snow forced public schools to cancel in-person classes for Tuesday. Hours earlier, along the normally sultry Gulf of Mexico, cross-country skier Sam Fagg hit fresh powder on the beach in Galveston, Texas.
The worst power cuts in the US were in Texas, which affects more than 2 million homes and businesses. More than 250,000 people also lost power in parts of Appalachia, and another 200,000 were without electricity after an ice storm in northwestern Oregon, according to poweroutage.us, which keeps reports of power outages. Four million people lost power in Mexico
Texas officials requested 60 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and planned to prioritize hospitals and nursing homes. The state opened 35 shelters for more than 1,000 residents, the agency said.
More than 500 people sought comfort at a shelter in Houston. Mayor Sylvester Turner said other warming centers were closed because they ran out of power.
After losing power on Monday, Natalie Harrell said she, her boyfriend and four children found shelter in a Gallery Furniture store in Houston. The warming center in the store provided people with food, water and power to charge essential electronics.
“It’s worse than a hurricane,” Harrell said. “I think we will be without light for more days, it seems.”
Utilities from Minnesota to Texas have implemented continuous power outages to alleviate the load on power grids that must meet the extreme demands for heat and electricity.
Blackouts lasting more than an hour began around dawn Tuesday for Oklahoma City and more than a dozen other communities, causing electrically powered space heaters, furnaces and lights to shut down as the temperature hovered around minus 8 degrees (minus 22 degrees). Celsius).
Oklahoma Gas & Electric has withdrawn plans for more power outages, but urged users to set thermostats to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), avoid the use of large electrical appliances, and lights or appliances that were not in use to take out.
However, Entergy began power outages in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Southeast Texas on Tuesday evening at the direction of his grid operator, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, “ as a last resort and to prevent more extensive, prolonged power outages that could seriously affect reliability. of the electricity grid, ”said a statement of the New Orleans-based utility.
“Due to the extremely cold temperatures of the past few days, the demand for electricity is unprecedented,” Entergy said. “In addition, these weather conditions have forced resource generation across the system. The implementation of this load shed across the Entergy region will help ensure a sufficient reserve margin, putting Entergy better positioned to deal with additional extreme weather this week. “
Entergy has nearly 3 million electricity customers in the four states.
Nebraska’s blackouts came amid one of the coldest weather events on record: in Omaha, the temperature at night dropped to 23 degrees below zero (minus 30 degrees Celsius), the coldest in 25 years.
The Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities covering 14 states, said the outage was “a last resort to maintain the reliability of the electrical system as a whole.”
The power outage forced a Texas county to administer more than 8,000 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine after a public health facility lost power early Monday and the backup generator also failed, said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
District officials divided the doses that could have been tainted into three hospitals, Rice University and the prison, because there were large groups of people available who did not need to drive and appropriate medical personnel were present.
“It feels great. I am very grateful to you, ” said Harry Golen, a sophomore who waited nearly four hours with his friends, most of them out in the cold, and was one of the last to get the shots that otherwise would have reached the students. March or April.
Texas officials said more than 400,000 doses now due will not arrive until Wednesday because of the storm.
The tornado that hit Brunswick County, North Carolina was an EF3 with wind speeds estimated at 160 mph (257 kph), the weather service said on Twitter.
Three people died and 10 were injured when the tornado ripped through a golf course and another rural area just before midnight Monday, destroying dozens of homes.
Sharon Benson, 63, said her roof was damaged and her garage door blown off. Windows had been smashed and nearby trees were uprooted.
“The sky lit up and there was a lot of pop-pop-pops,” and thunderstorms, she said.
Authorities in multiple states reported fatalities in icy road accidents, including two people whose vehicle slid off the road Sunday and overturned into a Kentucky waterway, state police said. A Mississippi man died after losing control of his vehicle, which turned on an icy road near Starkville Monday night, Oktibbeha County coroner Michael Hunt said Tuesday.
In Texas, three young children and their grandmother died in the Houston area fire, which likely started while using a fireplace to keep warm during a power outage, a firefighter said. And in Oregon, authorities on Tuesday confirmed the deaths of four people on the Portland subway last weekend from carbon monoxide poisoning.
At least 13 children were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, the hospital said in a social media post warning that families would “take extreme measures to heat their homes” – with propane or diesel combustion. engines and generators, gas ovens and stoves. One parent died of the toxic fumes, pediatrician Phillip Scott told Fort Worth television station KTVT.
Other deaths in Texas included a woman and girl who died of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Houston in a home with no electricity from a car left in an adjacent garage, and two men found along roads in Houston and the surrounding area likely to die near temperatures below freezing. enforcement officials said.
In west Tennessee, a 10-year-old boy died after falling into an ice-covered pond during a winter storm on Sunday, firefighters said.
Several cities had record lows: In Minnesota, the Hibbing / Chisholm weather station recorded minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 39 degrees Celsius). Sioux Falls, South Dakota, fell to minus 26 Fahrenheit (minus 26 degrees Celsius).
In the afternoon, more than 2,700 US flights had been canceled, led by more than 800 at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and more than 700 at Bush Intercontinental in Houston.
Authorities implored residents to stay home on Tuesday. About 100 school systems have been closed, delayed opening, or switched to remote classes in Alabama, where forecasters said conditions will not improve until temperatures rise above freezing on Wednesday afternoon.
Associated Press employees in the United States contributed to this report.