Major winter storm sweeps across US, causing travel disruptions

New York, Jan 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) Large parts of the US experienced extreme winter weather, including heavy snowfall, ice storm, and blizzard.

The severe conditions caused widespread disruptions to transportation and infrastructure on Monday, with nearly 70 million people under a winter weather warning, Xinhua news agency reported.

"For some, this could be the heaviest snowfall in over a decade," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a statement.

As much as 18 inches of snowfall was reported in Chapman and St. George, Kansas, as of Monday morning, with over 10 inches of snowfall in Cameron, Missouri, and Mason, West Virginia.

According to flight tracker platform FlightAware, more than 1,900 flights within the US, both inbound and outbound, were canceled on Monday.

For some of the country's major airports, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York had an average delay of 46 minutes, canceling more than 104 flights. Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) had an average delay of 50 minutes, canceling more than 140 flights.

Rail travel was also severely affected. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) canceled more than 50 trains, including key routes along the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic states.

Amtrak said that these measures were taken "for the safety of Amtrak customers and employees" and confirmed that "no alternative transportation" would be provided.

Over 250,000 customers suffered electric outages as of 4:20 p.m. Eastern Time, according to outage tracker PowerOutage.us.

It was reported that at least four people died and dozens more were injured from traffic accidents related to the winter storm.

The National Weather Service warned that extreme weather could continue through Tuesday. Amtrak has begun canceling some Tuesday trains.

Source: IANS