We’re going to begin with that massive winter storm impacting more than a third of the country. The storm stretches some miles from Texas to Maine. Heavy snowfall made for sleek roads and dangerous travel conditions and the storm turned deadly with at least two deaths blamed on the weather. The roads were bad but the air wasn’t any better, for the second straight day, thousands of flights were canceled. Dallas airport was forced to shut down their runways all together. More than two hundred and fifty thousand customers are without power tonight after freezing rain and ice down trees and power lines from Texas to Ohio. Tennessee is actually hardest hit, more than a hundred and forty thousand are without power. The severe weather led to a large tornado in Alabama that killed at least one person and destroyed several homes.

The big concern here remains the power, it is frigid. And with windchill it’s feel like it’s about nine degrees and it’s going to get colder, so it’s the race to get the light back on for as many people as possible. But there are folks here in Texas who were even if the lights come back on, they may not stay on. Tonight, Texas on ice, among the tens of thousands without power plunging temperatures, more than a hundred homes in this neighborhood outside of Dallas. With temperatures in the low twenties, the outage is frigid reminder of last year’s deadly storm that crippled the lone star state. Of this time, the outages are spotty, many caused by ice on the trees coming down on power lines, leaving a huge mess for crews working to get power back on. Power outages have left more than two hundred and seventy thousand in the dark across the South and Mid-West. More than half of those outages in Tennessee. The icy roads caused several deaths, including a driver in Dallas who was ejected from this truck and fell on the road below. Across the country, snow, sleet and ice made driving treacherous, stranded trucks line in the median of this stretch of I-74 in Central Illinois. The storm even spawned tornados in Alabama, at least one person was killed, several others seriously injured. Back in Texas, all flights in and out of Dallas airport were stopped for hours after the runway ice over. Nationwide, more than five thousand flights were canceled today alone, the most cancelations in a single day for a weather event since 2017.