Millions of Texans were also urged to boil their water for protection despite widespread power losses. With several inches of snow forecast in the New York City area, another winter storm was sweeping through most of the world.
Here’s what you need to know:
New storm threatens to keep Texans cold for days.
In Texas, no power and no water: ‘I never imagined that we would be in this situation.’
How to use snow when there’s no water flowing from the faucet.
Several inches of snow are expected in the New York area.
No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main cause of the Texas blackouts.
A Times climate reporter answers questions about this week’s weather.
A former Texas mayor said residents should fend for themselves.
On Thursday, a band of foul weather extending from the Rio Grande to New York may compound the shortage of electricity and clean water for millions of people in Texas.
A big winter storm will bring freezing rain, snow and "much below average" temperatures, a gut shot for Texans who have resorted to stoves, barbecue grills, diesel generators and their cars to keep themselves safe, the National Weather Service said.
A big winter storm will bring freezing rain, snow and "much below average" temperatures, a gut shot for Texans who have resorted to stoves, barbecue grills, diesel generators and their cars to keep themselves safe, the National Weather Service said.
Glacial weather days have left at least 38 people dead worldwide, rendered numerous highways impassable, delayed the delivery of vaccinations and blanketed almost three-quarters of the continental United States with snow.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged people to prepare themselves for continued suffering.
“Most of the state will be below freezing,” Mr. Abbott said in a media briefing on Wednesday, adding that a respite from the cold snap would come only on Saturday.
The storm prompted the postponement of President Biden's scheduled trip to a Pfizer facility in Michigan that manufactures the coronavirus vaccine on Thursday.
It's going to be a nightmare," said Laura Pagano, a National Weather Service meteorologist, of the storm that was expected to stretch from the Plains to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
For the Washington area, several inches of snow and sleet is expected. In the Carolinas, Duke Energy warned its consumers that a million power outages could occur in the days ahead, and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued a similar warning, urging people to keep their phones charged and brace for the snow and ice to come.
In the New York City area, where Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that the weather had delayed shipments of coronavirus vaccine doses and prevented officials from scheduling more than 30,000 vaccination appointments, several inches of snow were expected, complicating a rollout already restricted by a limited dosage supply.
The loss of power was perhaps the most brutal consequence of the storm, although the number of outages declined overnight. Early Thursday, there were about 500,000 customers in Texas without electricity, the lowest such number in days, according to Bluefire Studios, a company that tracks outages.
Water has also emerged as a major problem, with almost seven million Texans — including the cities of Arlington, Austin, Houston and San Antonio — advised to boil their water for safety. About 263,000 people were affected by nonfunctioning water providers.
Hospital officials at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center scrambled on Wednesday night to fix a heating system that was failing because of low water pressure. They were forced to seek portable toilets and distribute bottles of water to patients and employees so they could wash their hands.
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