By Chantal Da Silva —
NBC News
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses lost power Friday morning as a deadly winter storm leaves parts of the United States under potentially dangerous ice packs.
As of early Friday morning,
more than 300,000 customers were without power, from Texas to Pennsylvania,
with snow and freezing rain weighing down tree limbs and affecting power lines, according to the outage tracker. PowerOutage.us.
Blackouts were reported in
Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,
with more than 138,000 customers without power in Tennessee alone as of 4:00 am ET.
[Winter storm leaves at least one dead in Alabama and more than 100,000 without power in Tennessee]
The storm also prompted another day of flight cancellations, with
more than 2,650 flights in, to and from the United States canceled,
adding to more than 5,200 flights suspended Thursday, according to flight tracking platform FlightAware.
Ken Sayen cleans the roads and sidewalks of his neighborhood during a snow storm in Toledo, Ohio, on February 3, 2022. GAELEN MORSE / REUTERS
According to the National Weather Service, parts of the country, including Ohio, New York and northern New England, are expected to see heavy snow as the storm moves east.
[Frost temperatures are forecast to continue into the weekend]
Meanwhile, freezing rain in the Northeast has raised concerns about
potentially dangerous ice drifts
from central Pennsylvania eastward to the Catskills in New York.
According to the weather service, “significant ice buildup is possible,” snow and freezing rain could create “difficult conditions along with some power outages and tree damage.”
Skidding cars, exploding transformers and thousands of people without power in Texas due to the winter storm
Feb. 3, 202201:58
Even as the storm moves out to sea late Friday and Saturday, Rick Otto, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, said ice and snow are expected to remain in its wake due to warmer temperatures. below zero.
The accumulation of ice could pose a danger, Otto told The Associated Press news agency: "Snow is much easier to plow than ice."
Showers and thunderstorms are also expected along portions of the central Gulf Coast, the Tennessee Valley and the Southeast, according to the National Weather Service.
People walk on a sidewalk along a busy highway where treetops froze after the winter storm moved in overnight in Richardson, Texas, on Thursday, February 3, 2022.Tony Gutierrez/ AP
As a result, the weather service said its Storm Prediction Center has issued a warning of a "slight risk of severe thunderstorms" over the region through Friday morning.
"The dangers associated with these thunderstorms are frequent lightning, gusts of wind from severe storms, hail and some tornadoes," he warned.
The risk is expected to be reduced to "marginal risk" later on Friday.
The most powerful storm of the season leaves millions under snow in the US
Feb. 3, 202200:42
The storm system has already been deadly.
In Hale County, Alabama, a woman was killed, while eight others were injured, after the tornado tore through the area Thursday afternoon, according to Hale County Emergency Director Russell.
Damage was also reported throughout the county, which is about 35 miles south of Tuscaloosa.
