More than 13,400 flights were cancelled across United States (US) as a historic winter storm battered the country, leaving over 2 lakh 17 thousand customers without power and threatening nearly 18 crore people with heavy snow, ice and freezing temperatures.

Flight tracking website FlightAware reported over 4,000 US flights cancelled on Saturday, with more than 9 thousand 400 Sunday flights also scrapped. Sunday's cancellations represent the highest single-day total since the COVID pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

President Donald Trump approved federal emergency disaster declarations in 12 states including South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana and West Virginia. Seventeen states and District of Columbia declared weather emergencies.

"It's going to be very, very cold. So we'd encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

Power outages surged to 2 lakh 17 thousand customers by 2 am EST Sunday, predominantly in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee, according to PowerOutage.com. Department of Energy issued emergency orders authorizing Electric Reliability Council of Texas to deploy backup generation resources at data centers and major facilities.

National Weather Service warned of unusually expansive and long-duration winter storm bringing widespread heavy ice accumulation across Southeast, with "crippling to locally catastrophic impacts" expected. Forecasters said damage, especially in ice-pounded areas, could rival hurricane destruction.

Life-threatening wind chill readings plunged below minus 45 degrees Celsius in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. Meteorologist Jacob Asherman warned exposure without proper clothing 'can lead to hypothermia very, very quickly.'

Southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee faced worst conditions with ice up to 2.5 centimeters thick coating tree limbs, power lines and roadways. Storm system was expected to dump over 30 centimeters of snow across heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states.

Dallas temperatures plummeted to minus 6 degrees Celsius, while Houston mayor urged residents to hunker down for 72 hours. Snow already recorded 15 centimeters in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Major airlines including Delta, JetBlue and United warned passengers about abrupt flight changes. Delta relocated cold-weather experts to support de-icing and baggage teams at southern airports. JetBlue cancelled approximately one thousand flights through Monday.

Dominion Energy said if ice forecast holds, this could rank among largest-ever winter events affecting utility operations in Virginia, home to world's largest data center collection.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged residents to avoid travel. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced commercial vehicle travel restrictions and 56 kilometers per hour speed limit on highways.

"This is a mean storm. It's the biggest storm so far this season in terms of intensity and scope," Asherman told media.

Source: Reuters, Al Jazeera