A massive winter storm has killed at least 18 people across the U.S and left more than 800,000 customers without electricity as dangerous cold grips much of the nation.
The storm brought heavy snow to the Northeast and dangerous ice to the South over the weekend, according to ABC News. Almost 270 million Americans living in America’s central or eastern regions remained under cold weather alerts Monday morning. The storm has triggered over 20,000 flight cancellations since Friday. Sunday saw over 11,000 flights grounded, the highest single-day total since COVID, Cirium data found. (RELATED: At Least 3 New Yorkers Found Dead In Cold After Hochul Turned Down Help From Trump Admin)
President Donald Trump approved federal emergency disaster declarations for 12 states, including Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and the Carolinas, FOX Weather reported. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has stockpiled over 300 generators, 7 million meals, 3 million liters of water and more than 650,000 blankets at distribution centers.
@DHSgov & our partners have been in lockstep with us since well before this winter storm started. This is a swift & unprecedented response. @POTUS approved a historic amount of emergency declarations for 12 states covering nearly 900 counties & parishes & 4 Tribal Nations. pic.twitter.com/zifQE7xUtL
— FEMA (@fema) January 26, 2026
Deaths occurred across multiple states, ABC News reported. Three people died in Tennessee. At least two died due to hypothermia in Louisiana, the state’s Department of Public Health said. A 16-year-old girl in Frisco, Texas, died in a sledding accident when the sled she was riding hit a curb and crashed into a tree while being pulled by a car, police said. Another person died from cold exposure in Austin, Texas, according to officials. Another died in Massachusetts after a snowplow truck reportedly struck her while she was walking with her husband, WCVB5 reported.
By early Monday, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas had suffered the worst power outages, according to PowerOutage.us data reviewed by CNN. Tennessee reported more than 250,000 customers without electricity. Mississippi followed with almost 161,000 outages. Louisiana had nearly 128,000 customers in the dark and Texas reported over 62,000. More than 800,000 people lacked power as of Monday morning, ABC News reported.
“It will be a prolonged restoration period,” North East Power CEO Keith Hayward said in a video statement, describing ice damage to trees as “devastating.”