Southern US Freeze Enters Second Week With Widespread Power Outages
The southern United States is enduring a second consecutive week of freezing temperatures, with widespread power outages affecting tens of thousands of homes and businesses. The severe cold snap, which has persisted for over a week, continues to wreak havoc across multiple states, from the Carolinas to Florida.
Prolonged Power Failures and Human Hardship
In Tennessee and Mississippi, more than 70,000 homes and businesses have entered a second week without electricity. This prolonged outage stems from severe damage to power lines and utility poles caused by an earlier snow and ice storm. The situation has left many residents in dire circumstances.
In Nashville, Tennessee, Terry Miles described Monday as his ninth day without power. He has been living with his wife and their dog in a bedroom insulated with blankets, relying on a propane grill for cooking and heating water. Recently, he borrowed a small gas generator to run a couple of space heaters.
"We're roughing it," Miles said. "I've been camping before and had it easier than this. I feel like Grizzly Adams."
Coastal Erosion and Home Collapses
On the East Coast, the National Park Service reported that four unoccupied homes along North Carolina's Outer Banks collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean since Sunday. A bystander recorded one of the structures toppling into the water, with photos showing piles of debris along the shoreline in the village of Buxton.
The Outer Banks' narrow, low-lying barrier islands have been eroding for years due to rising seas. Prior to this latest storm, more than two dozen houses, typically built on stilts at the water's edge, had collapsed since 2020, often during extreme weather events.
Agricultural Impact in Florida
In Florida, farmers are anxiously awaiting a thaw to assess damage to their frozen plants. Some growers spray water on fruit trees and plants ahead of freezing weather to protect them from deeper cold. Fern growers, in particular, were waiting Monday for a protective layer of ice coating their plants to melt away.
The timing is especially problematic for fern growers, who are in the midst of their busiest shipping period ahead of Valentine's Day on February 14. "It is just terrible timing," said Victoria Register, director of sales and marketing at FernTrust, a growers' cooperative in Seville, Florida. "It's right in the middle of our busiest shipping time of the entire year."
Utility Criticism and Political Response
In Tennessee, frustrations are mounting with the Nashville Electric Service over an outage that initially affected about a quarter-million customers. More than 20,000 remained without electricity on Monday after more than a week, with full restoration not expected until February 9.
Nashville Electric Service has defended its response, calling the storm unprecedented and noting it cut power to about half its customers. However, Mayor Freddie O'Connell announced Monday he is ordering a review of the utility's storm preparation and response, stating that utility leaders were "unequipped to communicate about a crisis."
Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee also criticized the utility, posting on social media: "Whoever is responsible for this breakdown should be fired."
Death Toll and Ongoing Weather Alerts
The death toll from the dangerous cold has surpassed 110 in affected states since January 24. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday that hypothermia played a role in the deaths of 13 people found dead outside, according to preliminary findings. More than a dozen other suspected hypothermia deaths were reported in Indiana, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas.
After more than a week of cold-weather warnings across the eastern U.S., the National Weather Service still had several alerts in effect, including a freeze warning through early Tuesday in south Georgia and most of Florida. Some snow was also expected Tuesday across parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Cleanup Efforts and Road Conditions
Nearly a foot (29 centimeters) of snow fell over the weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina's largest city. Governor Josh Stein's office said Monday that crews were still clearing interstates and highways. "We are working around the clock to clear roads and get people back to their daily lives as quickly and safely as possible, but because temperatures will remain low overnight, this process takes time," Stein said in a news release.
Residents in the Carolinas and Virginia continued to dig out from significant snowfall, while thermometers remained below freezing across the northern U.S., stretching from the Dakotas to Maine. Sub-zero conditions were forecast to return to the Southeast overnight, affecting parts of northern Florida.
