More than two-thirds of the U.S. population was under an extreme weather alert on Friday as a deep freeze enveloped much of the country ahead of the holiday weekend, thwarting travel plans, knocking out power to homes and businesses and causing at least three deaths.
With a column of bitter cold that stretched from Texas to Montana starting to march eastward, more than 240 million people were under weather advisories on Friday, the National Weather Service said. Hard-freeze warnings were posted in parts of the Southern states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Georgia, according to Reuters.
Numbing cold intensified by high winds even extended to the U.S.-Mexico border, bringing single-digit wind chill temperatures to the border city of El Paso, Texas.
Farther north, heavy snowfall was forecast in parts of Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York, including upwards of 35 inches in Buffalo, Weather Service meteorologist Ashton Robinson Cook said.
The map of existing or impending wintry hazards “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever,” the agency said.
The extreme weather disrupted households and holiday plans just days before Christmas. About 1.5 million U.S. homes and businesses were without power on Friday, according to tracking site Poweroutage.us. About 187,000 customers were without power in North Carolina alone, where strong winds have hampered restoration efforts.
