A heavy snowstorm also caused power and flight failures in large parts of the eastern United States on Monday. More than 215,000 homes in the US were without power. The states of South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia were hardest hit by the power outages. Nearly 1,600 flights at US airports were canceled by noon on Monday alone, according to website FlightAware. The south-east of Canada is also affected by the storm.
A snowstorm warning has been issued for some areas of Canada, including parts of the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Many schools remained closed in Quebec and southern Ontario.
In the United States, the National Weather Service NWS expected the “heavy snowstorm” to weaken over the course of the day. Nevertheless, “significant impacts from snow, ice, wind and flooding on the coast” can be expected. A storm warning was still in effect for eleven states. At noon, 57 centimeters of fresh snow were measured in Harpersfield, Ohio.
The winter storm first hit the southeast and coastal areas in the east of the country on Sunday before moving on to New England and southern Canada. Accustomed to mild winter weather, Florida also struggled with snow-bearing tornadoes that caused property damage and coastal flooding on Sunday, according to the Weather Channel.
According to Flightaware, around 3,000 flights had already been canceled over the weekend, and another 4,200 were delayed. Chaos also reigned on the streets. A section of Interstate I95 in North Carolina has been closed. Motorists were warned of “dangerous road conditions” and long traffic jams from Arkansas in the south to Maine in the northeast. In Virginia alone, police reported nearly a thousand accidents on Sunday.
In total, more than 80 million people were affected by the weather warnings. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper urged residents to stay at home because of the inclement weather and to avoid driving if possible. The roof of a college dorm collapsed in Brevard, North Carolina, but no one was injured, according to television reports.
The north-east of the USA had already been snowed in with a blanket of snow up to 30 centimeters thick at the beginning of January. Hundreds of drivers were stuck for almost 20 hours on one of the most important routes to the capital Washington.