Severe Winter Storm in US Death Toll Jumps to 28

The death toll caused by extreme weather conditions across the United States has risen to at least twenty-eight as a powerful winter storm continues to affect large parts of the country.

The severe storm blanketed dozens of US states with heavy snowfall over the weekend, leading to widespread power outages, the cancellation of thousands of flights and the suspension of school operations in many areas.

Officials reported that some of the fatal incidents included two people being struck by snow removal equipment in the states of Massachusetts and Ohio as well as deadly accidents during sledding activities in Arkansas and Texas.

Authorities in New York City also announced the discovery of eight bodies in open areas as temperatures dropped sharply overnight amid the intense cold wave.

The storm’s impact stretched from Massachusetts in the northeastern United States to Texas in the south, with field reports showing frozen roads and snow accumulation exceeding thirty centimetres in several regions.

Residents in some southern states experienced unusual weather conditions that had not been seen in their areas for decades.

Data from the Power Outage monitoring website revealed that around seven hundred thousand users lost electricity across regions extending from the Mid-Atlantic to the southern United States as of four in the afternoon.

Air travel was heavily disrupted, with more than twelve thousand five hundred flights cancelled across the United States on Sunday, marking the highest number of cancellations in a single day since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020.

According to FlightAware, which tracks air traffic, more than five thousand two hundred domestic and international flights were cancelled by midday yesterday, while over six thousand six hundred flights were delayed.

As the storm gradually moves away from the eastern coast toward the Atlantic Ocean, the National Weather Service warned that a mass of Arctic air will follow, keeping temperatures below freezing for several more days.