Tens of thousands face another arctic blast without power as East Coast preps for a new storm

BELZONI, Miss. (AP) — As tens of thousands of radical endured astir a week with nary electricity, different tempest loomed connected the East Coast wherever residents braced for near-hurricane unit winds, dense snowfall and imaginable flooding.

More than 230,000 homes and businesses were without energy Friday, with the immense bulk of those outages successful Mississippi and Tennessee, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us.

In Mississippi’s Lafayette County, wherever astir 12,000 radical were inactive without energy mid-day Friday, exigency absorption bureau spokesperson Beau Moore said helium knows not everyone volition get powerfulness backmost earlier the acold hits.

“It’s a contention against clip to get it connected for those we tin get it connected for,” Moore said.

Workers are attacking the task by crushed and air. A video connected the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Facebook leafage shows a idiosyncratic sitting connected the skids of a hovering chopper truthful they tin repair a elephantine powerfulness structure.

Arctic aerial moving into the Southeast volition origin already frigid temperatures to plummet into the teens (minus 10 Celsius) connected Friday nighttime successful cities similar Nashville, Tennessee, wherever galore inactive lacked powerfulness astir a week aft a monolithic tempest dumped snowfall and crystal crossed the eastbound U.S., the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters accidental the subfreezing upwind volition persist successful the eastbound U.S. into February and there’s precocious accidental of dense snowfall successful the Carolinas, Virginia and northeast Georgia this weekend, perchance up to a ft (30 centimeters) successful parts of North Carolina. Snow is besides imaginable on the East Coast from Maryland to Maine.

On Saturday nighttime and aboriginal Sunday, forecasters expect upwind and snowfall that could pb to blizzard conditions earlier the tempest starts to determination to sea.

Snow should heap up successful the Carolinas

Several inches of snow, perchance 1 ft (30.5 centimeters) successful immoderate locations, were forecast statewide, peculiarly successful eastbound counties.

Hundreds of authorities National Guard soldiers were acceptable to help. State workers person besides been preparing roads.

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a municipality much accustomed to hurricanes, postulation jams and tourists, the National Weather Service predicted 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow.

The metropolis has nary snowfall removal equipment. Mayor Mark Kruea said they volition “use what we tin find” — possibly a centrifugal grader oregon bulldozer to scrape streets.

“With a hurricane you tin tempest impervious galore things," Kruea said Friday. "But astatine a spot similar this, determination is lone a fewer things you tin bash to get acceptable for snow."

In Wake Forest, North Carolina, radical filled propane tanks Friday astatine Holding Oil and Gas, wherever worker Stanley Harris disconnected 1 tank, acceptable it speech with a clank and past hooked up another.

In Dare County to the east, location to overmuch of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, longtime nonmigratory Bob Woodard said he's disquieted astir that much unoccupied houses successful communities similar Rodanthe and Buxton could illness into the Atlantic Ocean.

Hypothermia risks grow

With the question of unsafe acold heading for the South, experts accidental the hazard of hypothermia heightens for radical successful parts of Mississippi and Tennessee who are entering their sixth time trapped astatine location without powerfulness successful subfreezing temperatures.

“The assemblage tin grip acold temperatures concisely precise well, but the prolonged vulnerability is simply a problem,” said Dr. Hans House, University of Iowa prof of exigency medicine.

People who are much susceptible — the elderly, infants and those with underlying wellness conditions — whitethorn person started experiencing hypothermia symptoms wrong hours of vulnerability to the frigid temperatures, explained Dr. Zheng Ben Ma, aesculapian manager of the University of Washington Medical Center’s northwest exigency department. That tin see exhaustion, slurred code and representation loss.

“Once you get into days six, seven, upwards of 10, past adjacent a healthy, resilient idiosyncratic volition beryllium much predisposed to experiencing immoderate of those deleterious effects of the acold temperature,” helium said.

Frostbite is besides a interest successful confederate states, wherever radical mightiness not ain apparel for bluish winters, said Dr. David Nestler, an exigency medicine specializer astatine the Mayo Clinic successful Minnesota.

Mississippi and Tennessee inactive seeking afloat power

Mississippi officials accidental it’s the state’s worst wintertime tempest since 1994. About 80 warming centers were opened successful 1 of the nation’s poorest states. National Guard troops were delivering supplies by motortruck and helicopter.

Yazoo Valley Electric Power Association workers, immoderate of whom don’t person powerfulness astatine their ain homes, are moving 16-hour days to reconstruct energy successful Mississippi. Workers chopped their mode done downed trees to scope immoderate areas for repairs, said Michael Neely, CEO and wide manager.

Worker Ethan Green, 21, said helium feels unit to get the occupation done quickly. “We tin lone spell truthful quick,” helium said. "In bid to bash it safely, we person to instrumentality our time.”

In Tennessee, crews were besides distributing supplies, said Gov. Bill Lee.

Nashville residents' criticisms person grown louder implicit their utility's tempest preparations and recovery, arsenic much than 70,000 homes and businesses it serves remained powerless with frigid temperatures expected. Nashville Electric Service has defended its approach, saying it was an unprecedented storm. At the peak, astir fractional of its customers successful and adjacent the superior metropolis mislaid power.

Nearly 90 radical person died successful bitter acold from Texas to New Jersey. Roughly fractional the deaths were reported successful Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. While immoderate deaths person been attributed to hypothermia, others are suspected to beryllium related to c monoxide exposure.

The arctic acold was expected to plunge arsenic acold southbound arsenic Florida.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia, and Thanawala from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jeff Martin successful Kennesaw, Georgia; Jeffrey Collins successful Columbia, South Carolina; Gary Robertson successful Raleigh, North Carolina; Jonathan Mattise and Travis Loller successful Nashville, Tennessee; Allen G. Breed successful Wake Forest, North Carolina; Sarah Brumfield successful Washington; David Fischer successful Fort Lauderdale; Devi Shastri successful Milwaukee and Hallie Golden successful Seattle contributed to this report.

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.