Historic winter storm hits large parts of United States

WASHINGTON, 26th January, 2026 (WAM)– US President Donald Trump on Sunday described the winter storms sweeping across much of the United States as “historic”, as forecasters warned of record-low temperatures and potentially “catastrophic” damage.

The severe weather has left more than one million people without electricity and led to the cancellation of over 10,000 flights over the past two days.

Heavy snow, freezing rain and bitterly cold temperatures paralysed parts of the eastern and southern United States, with the storm system affecting an area covering nearly two-thirds of the country.

PowerOutage reported that outages continued to rise, with at least 330,000 customers without power in Tennessee and more than 100,000 each in Mississippi and Louisiana. Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia and Alabama were also affected.

Flight-tracking website FlightAware said more than 10,800 flights were cancelled on Sunday, following over 4,000 cancellations on Saturday.

Trump approved federal emergency disaster declarations for several states and said authorities would remain in close contact with those in the storm’s path, urging Americans to “stay safe and stay warm”.

The Department of Homeland Security said 17 states and Washington, DC, had declared states of emergency, as the National Weather Service warned that the storm could be unusually widespread and long-lasting.