Winter storm hits US east coast and Canada, thousands of flights canceled

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) – A major winter storm battered much of the eastern United States with snow, ice and high winds on Sunday, causing widespread travel disruptions and power outages during a holiday weekend.

Winter weather alerts stretched more than 1,000 miles (1,609 km) from Alabama to Maine, with governors in Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina all declaring emergencies due to the storm.

More than 200,000 homes and businesses in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia reported power outages, according to PowerOutage.US, a power outage tracking website.

In North Carolina, where some areas have seen record snowfall, two people died on Sunday when they lost control of their car in Raleigh.

The highest snow totals were expected along the Appalachian spine as well as the lower Great Lakes.

The storm moved through the mid-Atlantic region toward New England on Sunday evening, bringing snow that is expected to turn to ice, sleet and possibly rain, the National Weather Service said.

In Canada, the storm is expected to dump between 20 and 40 cm (8 to 16 inches) of snow through Monday morning over parts of southern and eastern Ontario, the Canadian province that shares part of its border. with New York State, the government weather agency. , Environment Canada, said.

Bad weather hits just as schools across Ontario were set to reopen for in-person classes on Monday after the winter break was extended due to the highly contagious variant of the Omicron coronavirus.

More than 3,000 flights within, to or from the United States were canceled on Sunday and more than 8,000 flights were delayed, according to FlightAware data.

American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O) has recorded more than 660 flight cancellations. More than 90% of flights to and from Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, a hub for American Airlines, have been canceled, the FlightAware website show.

American Airlines said it was allowing weather-affected customers to book flights at no cost.

Toronto, home to Canada’s busiest airport, is expected to see accumulations of 15 to 20 cm of snow.

It was a long weekend for most people in the United States, as Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said Sunday that people should avoid non-essential travel to areas affected by the storm.

“If you are able tonight and tomorrow morning, stay home and off the roads,” Kemp said on Twitter. “It’s going to be treacherous in many parts of our state.”

Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Kieran Murray and Karishma Singh

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