Overview
- About 240 million people are under cold weather advisories or winter storm alerts as temperatures plunge across the eastern U.S., with a rapidly deepening coastal storm expected this weekend.
- More than 127,000 customers remain without electricity, largely in Mississippi and Tennessee, including over 47,000 in Nashville on Saturday morning, and utilities have not provided a firm restoration timeline.
- Authorities report more than 100 deaths from Texas to New Jersey, with officials citing confirmed hypothermia cases and suspected carbon monoxide poisonings linked to unsafe indoor heating.
- National Guard units in Mississippi and Tennessee are clearing debris, conducting welfare checks and delivering food, blankets and fuel, while roughly 80 warming shelters are open in Mississippi.
- Meteorologists expect 6 to 10 inches of snow in parts of the southern Appalachians, the Carolinas and Georgia, with blizzard-like conditions possible along the Carolina coast as the storm intensifies offshore and unusually cold air reaches into Florida.