A severe winter storm hit a number of states across the U.S. East Coast, leaving hundreds of thousands of households without power, leading to numerous flight cancellations and causing dangerous driving conditions Sunday.
The storm resulted in a total of over 230,000 power outages in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to Fox Weather. As of Sunday evening, outage issues were largely resolved in the states of Arkansas and Florida, data from PowerOutage.US showed. (RELATED: Tornadoes, Severe Weather Ravage Middle America)
Over 2,700 flights were canceled and more than 1,500 flights were delayed. Nearly 95% of the flights scheduled to depart from the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina were canceled due to the extreme weather conditions, Reuters reported.
The latest key messages for the expansive winter storm across the eastern U.S. Impacts will be felt across 20 or more states from the eastern Tennessee Valley into the Carolina Piedmont, then northward across the Appalachians, Mid Atlantic, and Northeast. pic.twitter.com/n2M0WLdZSe
— NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) January 16, 2022
The Virginia State Police responded to reports of 369 traffic accidents and 282 disabled vehicles on the state roads hit by the winter storm Sunday afternoon.
The North Carolina Highway Patrol announced that is was attending to 300 car crashes and nearly 800 calls for service by mid-afternoon, according to the Associated Press.
A tornado with winds reaching 118 mph slammed southwest Florida and was on the ground for nearly two miles with a maximum path width of 125 yards, The National Weather Service confirmed to AP. The tornado demolished 30 mobile homes and damaged another 51, according to the AP.
Edward Murray, 81, told Naples Daily News how the tornado upended his mobile house while he and his daughter were in it.
“The tornado took me off my feet, blew me toward the east wall and buried me under the sink, refrigerator, kitchen chairs and everything else,” Murray said.
By Sunday evening, snow turned into rain along the East Coast, Fox Weather reported.