Washington-Sana
At least ten people were killed, more than a thousand flights were canceled, and hundreds of thousands of people were cut off in five US states after a severe winter storm caused snow and snowfall in an area that stretched from Texas to Michigan.
Reuters quoted the National Weather Service as saying that storms struck areas from Texas across the southeast and the Great Lakes to Maine, causing hurricane winds and snow, ranging from five centimeters to 13 centimeters, on Friday night and early in the morning.
The office of the chief of security in Bossier County, northwest of Louisiana, said that two people died when the storm destroyed a mobile home, while local media reported that a third person was killed after a tree fell on his home in the state.
NBC said a fourth person was killed Friday in the storms when a car slipped off a road to plunge into a stream in Dallas.
A firefighter and a policeman were killed in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday, after a car slid onto a highway due to snow while investigating a traffic accident, firefighting officials said in Lubbock.
CNN reported that three other storm-related deaths occurred in Pickens County, western Alabama, but no further details were available.
The Houston Chronicle newspaper reported that a tenth person was killed in southern Oklahoma on Saturday morning after a 58-year-old man was swept away while his truck stopped in deep water on a flooded road.
The Power OutageUS website to track power outages said more than 257,000 homes and businesses were cut off in Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
A major blackout in Texas, Michigan and Illinois was largely repaired by Saturday afternoon.
The FlightAir website said most of the flight delays and cancellations in the United States were at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after canceling more than a thousand flights and hundreds of other flights.