U.S. death toll from winter storm and cold rises to over 30 as parts of South could be without power ‘weeks, not days’

Ice covers a neighborhood in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. (Aaron E. Martinez/The Austin American-Statesman/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

This weekend’s winter storm and ensuing bitter cold have left at least 30 people dead and caused prolonged power outages for hundreds of thousands, particularly across the southern U.S.

The damage from ice and cold was most significant in a swath stretching from east Texas through Louisiana, Mississippi and into Nashville, Tennessee. Power officials in Nashville said to expect lengthy outages from the “historic” storm, and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves deployed up to 500 members of the state’s National Guard to assist.

“It’s somewhat like whack-a-mole. Every time one of the utility companies and power companies gets a large group back online, we have another tree fall or another limb fall,” Reeves said Monday. “We will get through this, but we’re not going to get through it today. And we’re not going to get through it tomorrow. This is going to take time.”

Meanwhile, around 175 million people are under cold alerts for frigid temperatures that will linger for days. The brutal cold is setting new record daily lows in the Plains. More record lows are expected in the South and East through at least this week.

Meteorologists are also eyeing the potential for another significant winter storm to hit the East Coast this weekend, although its strength and path remain unclear.

At least two dozen storm- and cold-related deaths were reported across several states, including Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Some have been attributed to hypothermia, while others were associated with snow shoveling, officials say. Several other deaths are also under investigation.

Among the deaths in Louisiana: A 46-year-old man involved in a vehicle crash on icy roads; a 62-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman of suspected hypothermia in their homes; and a 79-year-old woman whose medical device failed during a power outage.

In Texas, three brothers ages 6, 8 and 9 fell through the ice on a private pond and died in Texas, just north of Dallas, authorities said. In addition, two 16-year-old girls riding a sled pulled by a Jeep hit a tree, killing one and leaving the other in critical condition, according to officials.

The most significant infrastructure damage was to the South, where ice made roads slick, snapped tree limbs and weighed down power lines.

“It’s like driving on a 30-mile ice cube,” said Tom Lindsey, a coordinator with Tippah County Emergency Management in Mississippi.

As of Tuesday morning, hundreds of thousands of electric customers have regained power, according to tracking website PowerOutage.US, a drastic improvement from the million customers who suffered from outages at one point. But more than half a million customers remained in the dark as of Tuesday afternoon, including around 170,000 in Tennessee, around 140,000 in Mississippi and just under 100,000 in Louisiana.

The breadth of the storm means much of the country is dealing in some way with its aftermath. Snow was on the ground for just over 56% of the Lower 48 states Monday, and at least a foot of snow fell in 18 states, stretching from New Mexico up and over to Maine.

Prolonged outages expected in South

The Weather Prediction Center had warned before the storm of “catastrophic ice accumulation,” and that forecast held up for parts of the South.

Repairs and restoration to electrical infrastructure in northern Mississippi will be “prolonged” due to widespread damage and unsafe conditions, Northeast Mississippi Electric Power Association (NEMEPA) CEO Keith Hayward said in a social media post.

“One reason this has taken a little while is the logistics are slow. The roads are still extremely dangerous,” Hayward said Monday night, noting key highways had been closed.

Hayward said this storm was worse than Mississippi’s historic 1994 ice storm, when outages took 23 days to restore. While modern upgrades may speed repairs compared with 1994, Hayward warned that restoration won’t be quick.

Lindsey, the Tippah County coordinator, said they had a “complete grid failure” and county-wide water issues. He warned of “weeks, not days,” before residents are back in their homes with power.

“People that didn’t prepare five days out are now extremely suffering, especially those with electric heat,” he said.

In Tennessee, this storm marked the highest number of outages at one time in the Nashville Electric Service’s history, with a peak of 230,000, the utility said in a Monday morning update on X. That surpasses the 200,000 outages reached during the damaging May 2020 derecho, which was one of the utility’s largest outages on record for the city.

Nashville residents should be prepared to potentially go without power for up to a week, said Brent Baker, executive vice president and chief operations and innovations officer of the Nashville Electric Service.

“This is going to be a historic event,” Baker told CNN’s Isabel Rosales on Monday. “Maybe a 20- or 30-year memory for most of us as we’ll look back at this. This is going to be something that will go down in history and be significant for our customers.”

The electricity service had deployed about 400 line workers to respond to 153 broken poles as of midafternoon Monday.

“This will be a weeklong event at a minimum that we’re going to be working on this, but we think if we make it through today’s cold weather and the trees continue to fall … we’ll start to make more progress as the days continue on,” Baker said.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Monday unaffected utilities in the southern part of the state were moving to central and north Louisiana to help recovery efforts. He encouraged people without power to go to a warming center set up by the state.

“If you’re in north Louisiana and you do not have power and you also do not have heat, you need to find somewhere to go,” he said. “Don’t just, ‘Oh, the power may just come on at midnight.’ It is dangerously cold the next couple nights. Find somewhere to go.”

Flights cancelled and roads dangerous

Chris Dobry walked out of his home Sunday and came face-to-face with downed trees and thick ice covering power lines in his neighborhood of Greenwood, Mississippi.

“The ice storm in Mississippi is wreaking havoc,” Dobry wrote in a Facebook post. “No power, lines down, and trees are literally breaking apart.”

He told CNN that it “may take days” to get electricity back. In the meantime, he has been using his gas fireplace for heat.

Trees and power lines that are still standing could still snap in the coming days under the continued strain of the ice itself. Half an inch of ice – which 12 states recorded during this storm – can add as much as 500 pounds of weight to power lines. High winds can also push trees and power lines to their breaking point.

Travel by road was treacherous, while air travel nearly ground to a halt on Sunday. Airlines cancelled more than 11,600 flights on Sunday, according to FlightAware, the biggest cancellation day since Covid-19 shut down travel in March 2020. More than 6,000 U.S. flights were cancelled Monday too, affecting major airports stretching from Dallas to Boston.

Flight cancellations again rose sharply on Tuesday as some crews and equipment are still out of place. As of midday Tuesday, over 1,600 flights had been cancelled nationwide, according to FlightAware.

American Airlines continues to account for the majority of cancellations, ranking as the airline with the most cancelled flights for the fourth straight day. The airline began Tuesday with about a quarter of its schedule already cancelled.

American executives apologized to customers in an email Monday as the carrier struggled to recover from its schedule meltdown, with disruptions especially severe at its Dallas-Fort Worth hub.

Several major school districts closed or turned to virtual learning on Monday due to the storm, and some remained closed Tuesday due to inclement weather or road conditions. Students in Dallas, Memphis and Nashville will not have class Tuesday. In Maryland, Montgomery County schools remained closed Tuesday, while schools in Prince George’s County are scheduled to stay closed through Thursday.

By Eric Levenson and Mary Gilbert