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A massive winter storm struck much of the United States over the weekend, and it will now make its way toward the Northeast, CNN reports.
- The storm led to 15 deaths in weather-related vehicle accidents.
- In Oklahoma, 123 people were in the hospital because of winter-related injuries, per CNN.
- Texas and Louisiana both saw power outages across their states.
- More than 150 million people in 25 states faced winter storm warnings, winter weather advisories or ice storm warnings, according to The Hill.
Why it happened
The Associated Press reports that the winter storms and low temperatures extended into the South, which led to single-digit temperatures. The storms don’t normally travel that far south in the United States.
The impact
Texas Department of State Health Services told the AP that there were 400,000 COVID-19 vaccine shipments that were delayed because the winter weather.
The Washington Post reports: “Many houses and apartment buildings in Texas and other parts of the Sun Belt are built with minimal insulation, meaning that residents couldn’t count on their homes to stay warm for long once the power went out.”
What’s next?
According to CNN, the storm will now head toward the Northeast on Tuesday. There will be record cold mornings and afternoons all the way through Saturday. There’s expectations that the weather will dip below zero toward the weekend, too.
The West Coast is expected to receive wintry weather soon, too.
- “I’m almost certain that we are slowly watching one of the first billion-dollar weather disaster of 2021 unfold,” CNN Meteorologist Tyler Mauldin said.
President Joe Biden approved an emergency disaster declaration for 254 counties in Texas, per The Hill. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will respond to the outages to help people recover from the winter weather.
