cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/22460
Americans stripped supermarket shelves Friday ahead of potentially "catastrophic" winter weather that threatened at least 160 million people across the country with transportation chaos, blackouts and life-threatening cold.
The massive storm system was set to drop a mix of freezing rain and heavy snow starting Friday evening on its days-long march across the continental US.
The storm could bring "catastrophic ice accumulation," the National Weather Service said, potentially causing "long-duration power outages, extensive tree damage, and extremely dangerous or impassable travel conditions," including in many states less accustomed to intense winter weather.
After battering the country's southwest and central areas, the storm system was expected to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states—stretching from New Mexico to the Eastern seaboard—before a frigid air mass settles in.
More than 2,700 weekend flights have already been canceled, according to the tracker Flightaware, including many in and outbound from Texas.
State officials there vow the grid is in better shape than it was five years ago, when it failed during a deadly winter storm and left millions without power.
The southern state's Republican Governor Greg Abbott told journalists the grid "has never been stronger, never been more prepared and is fully capable of handling this winter storm."
Yet Michael Webber, a University of Texas engineering professor, warned ice accumulations would remain "a big risk" across the country—ice could amass and weigh down trees, for example, downing power lines and provoking outages.
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