Winter Storms and Extreme Cold

A massive winter storm that swept from the Southern Plains into the East Coast produced "catastrophic" ice, heavy snow and prolonged Arctic cold, killing at least 37 people and knocking out power to tens — at times hundreds — of thousands of customers across the South and Mid‑South while grounding thousands of flights and prompting more than a dozen state emergency declarations. The scale of the disaster has strained response efforts and raised questions about FEMA’s capacity — amid recent workforce cuts and stalled disaster declarations — even as the federal government and governors pre‑positioned supplies and mobilized National Guard troops.