Winter Storm Fern wreaks havoc across US causing $100 billion in damages as 17 states blanketed with one foot of snow, leaving 16 dead
A massive winter storm that lashed the United States over the weekend is expected to cost the country more than $100 billion after dumping a foot or more of snow on 17 different states and leaving at least 16 people dead.
Winter Storm Fern battered the country starting on Friday, bringing rare snowfall to Texas and Oklahoma before it made its way east through Sunday night.
The monster weather system has dumped a foot or more of snow in at least 17 states from New Mexico to New Hampshire, with the most recorded in Bonito Lake, New Mexico, which recorded 31 inches of slush, according to the National Weather Service.
Further east, the highest totals were recorded in western Pennsylvania, where 20 inches had fallen as of early Monday morning.
But it was also the largest snowstorm in Boston in nearly four years, delivering snowfall totals of a foot to two feet across much of the region.
AccuWeather forecasters now say they expect the storm to cost the US between $105 billion to $115 billion – making it the costliest severe weather event since the Los Angeles wildfires last year.
That figure accounts for damage to homes and businesses, disruptions to commerce and supply chain logistics, tourism losses, impacts to shipping operations, financial losses from extended power outages, major travel delays and infrastructure damage.
As of early Monday morning, nearly 830,000 people were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, which monitors outages across the nation.
A massive winter storm over the weekend dumped at least a foot of snow in at least 17 different states, as officials warned residents to stay off the streets. People are pictured walking their dog in New York City amid the blizzard-like conditions
NEW YORK CITY – A man continued to work in a food cart amid the massive snow storm
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – Downed trees and power lines plagued the south
Meanwhile, more than 11,500 flights were canceled across the US on Sunday, with over 3,500 cancelations already recorded for Monday morning, according to FlightAware.
Nearly 136 million Americans from the Southern Plains to the Northeast remained under cold weather alerts overnight, as temperatures stay 10 to 40 degrees below average, according to NBC News.
Some cities, including Dallas, Houston and Austin, Texas, as well as New Orleans, Louisiana, Little Rock, Arkansas and Tulsa, Oklahoma were even facing record-low temperatures overnight.
Wind chill made conditions even colder as the overnight lows threatened to refreeze roads early Monday, leading many school districts and government offices across the country to announce they would remain closed.
Many throughout the country have since taken advantage of the wild weather, skiing and sledding in some of the nation’s most iconic places, like New York City’s Central Park or the National Mall in Washington DC.
But the treacherous weather wasn’t all fun and games, as it resulted in at least 16 fatalities.
NEW YORK CITY – Olympic snowboarder Shaun White jumped over comedian Shane Gillis and Chris O’Connor in New York City’s Central Park
WASHINGTON DC – A man cross country skis on Capitol Hill
NEW YORK CITY – A man cross country skis in New York City’s Central Park
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Sunday that five people who were caught outside during the storm died, and hypothermia-related deaths were also reported in Louisiana.
Four others died in Arkansas, Michigan, Virginia, and Tennessee.
Texas also recorded at least two deaths – one in Austin, where an unidentified man was found dead in the parking lot of a Shell gas station, and another in a horrific sledding accident in Frisco.
Authorities announced that a 16-year-old girl died in the accident Sunday afternoon and another was left with life-threatening injuries.
The accident apparently occurred when the two girls were being pulled on a sled by a 16-year-old boy driving a Jeep Wrangler.
Witnesses said the sled hit a curb and collided with a tree, according to CBS News.
Other fatalities were reported on Long Island, New York, where a former New York Police Department officer died while shoveling out a church, and in Kansas, where beloved elementary school teacher Rebecca Rauber was found dead in a snow pile.
Additionally, the storm forced a private jet carrying eight passengers to crash while taking off from Maine’s Bangor International Airport on Sunday night.
Rebecca Rauber, 28, a beloved teacher in Kansas was found dead in a snow pile on Sunday
In Maine, the brutal winter weather forced a private jet carrying eight passengers to crash
It is unclear whether any of those onboard suffered any injuries.
Still, officials across the nation have warned residents to stay off the roads as hundreds of crashes were reported.
Roads were considered especially dangerous in Tennessee, where a disastrous tornado ripped through Williamson and Davidson County on Sunday afternoon.
Photos showed downed trees and power lines were seen lying in the middle of the road. Snow-covered branches were also seen strewn around in the aftermath.
As sportscaster Clay Travis then drove around the Nashville area, he said it ‘looks like a war zone.’
‘It may get worse as temperatures are now dropping and winds are increasing,’ he said Sunday evening.
The Volunteer State also saw the most power outages on Sunday with nearly 258,000 without electricity as of Monday morning.
NEW YORK CITY – High winds plagued midtown Manhattan on Sunday after five people who were caught outside during the storm died
WASHINGTON DC – A snow plow cleared a section of the road in the nation’s capital to prevent it from refreezing on Monday
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – A frontloader moved snow amid the city’s largest winter storm in four years
NEW YORK CITY – A family decided to visit Brooklyn Bridge Park amid the storm
The Nashville Electric Service has since warned that electricity may continue to be out for the next few days.
‘The combination of freezing rain and ice has impacted the NES service territory overnight, with trees being weighed down by ice causing them to snap and take down power lines,’ NES said.
In Texas, meanwhile, the Department of Energy ordered the manager of the state’s power grid to begin using backup generation resources at data centers and other facilities that consume large amounts of energy to help prevent blackouts.
The federal agency said the order would aid the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, in maintaining grid operations through the ‘extreme temperatures and storm destruction’ left by the powerful winter storm as 63,000 were without power there.
It then issued an emergency order to authorize grid operator PJM Interconnection to run ‘specified resources’ in the mid-Atlantic region, regardless of limits due to state laws or environmental permits.
NEW YORK CITY – Officials across the nation urged residents not to drive in the winter weather
NEW YORK CITY – People helped push a vehicle near Times Square as hundreds of crashes were reported across the country
NEW YORK CITY – Snow was seen falling in New York City’s underground subway system
Along with the snow, the storm brought dangerous icy conditions to much of the south, with heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar telling employees at its remanufacturing site in Corinth, Mississippi to stay home Monday and Tuesday.
It already was Mississippi´s worst ice storm since 1994 with its biggest-ever deployment of ice-melting chemicals – 200,000 gallons – plus salt and sand to treat icy roads, Governor Tate Reeves said in a news conference Sunday.
He urged people not to drive anywhere unless absolutely necessary.
‘Do please reach out to friends and family,’ the governor asked.
Heavy ice was also reported accumulating across the interior sections of the Eastern seaboard as far south as Atlanta, as the low-pressure system driving the storm moved through the Appalachian Mountains.
Power outages then became widespread across the South, where freezing rain deposited layers of ice up to an inch thick, toppling tree limbs and transmission lines.
The onslaught of snow, ice and winds hit air travel especially hard, with major carriers forced to cancel more than 11,000 flights scheduled for Sunday, according to FlightAware.com.
WASHINGTON DC – Two men cleared snow off security gates outside the US Capitol
NEW YORK CITY – An employee at John F Kennedy International Airport used a snowblower to clear an area of the airport as a majority of flights were canceled
NEW YORK CITY – Delta Air Lines planes are grounded at John F Kennedy Airport
NEW YORK CITY – People walk through the snow in Brooklyn as New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced she had mobilized National Guard troops to assist with the state’s emergency storm response
Ronald Reagan National Airport, located in northern Virginia just across the Potomac River from Washington, and New York City’s LaGuardia Airport were effectively closed altogether.
Airports serving other major metropolitan areas, including New York, Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina, had at least 80 percent of their Sunday flights canceled.
Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had mobilized National Guard troops in New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley to assist with the state’s emergency storm response.
The decree came after 17 states and the District of Columbia already declared weather emergencies on Saturday.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump called the storm ‘historic,’ as he announced on Saturday that he would approve federal emergency disaster declarations for a dozen states, mostly in the mid-South.
