Thousands of businesses and homes have been left without power due to a massive winter storm that discarded heavy and sleet snow in the central U.S.
The affected states are New York, Tennessee, Ohio, Arkansas, and Texas. More than 330,000 people are without power because an ice storm felled trees and power lines across the area.
According to gale Carson, restoring the power might take days. “It’s not going to be a quick process,” she said.
Last year, a major storm was experienced in Texas, leading to hundreds of deaths and millions without power. It was the biggest and worst blackout in the history of the USA.
According to the local officials and Abbott, the power outages on Thursday were because of the icy and high winds down the transmission lines. A crash involving 16 vehicles on Memphis highway left six people injured. Some four other people sustained non-critical injuries.
According to officials, The cold temperatures mean that the ice will remain for days, restricting traveling. Crews are working to clean up the fallen trees and electric posts.
“We do foresee, though, that it’s going to take multiple days, given the inclement weather conditions, to clear the public right of way,” Knecht said.
The storm led to the cancellation of flights disrupting traveling. Airlines canceled more than 11,000 flights because of the storm conditions.
“Adding your vehicle to the line of stopped traffic would be counterproductive for everyone,” an officer said.
Although the weather department had forecast more snow, the ice wreaked havoc on electricity and travel.
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