Storm cuts power, disrupts travel in South, Midwest

CHICAGO — More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power across the U.S. on Thursday as power companies struggled to keep pace with freezing rain and snow that weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines, part of a multiday winter storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and triggered weather warnings from Texas to the Northeast.

Storm conditions caused headaches for travelers across the country as airlines canceled more than 6,000 flights scheduled for Thursday or Friday in the U.S. At Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, authorities shut down all runways Thursday morning and reported more than 1,000 canceled flights.

The highest totals of power outages blamed on icy or downed power lines were concentrated in Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Ohio, but the path of the storm stretched further from the central U.S. into the South and Northeast on Thursday.

Heavy snow was expected from the southern Rockies to northern New England, while forecasters said heavy ice buildup was likely from Texas to Pennsylvania.

“We have a lot of real estate covered by winter weather impacts this morning,” Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md., said Thursday. “We do have an expansive area of heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain occurring.” Parts of Ohio, New York and northern New England were expected to see heavy snowfall as the storm moves to the east with 12 to 18 inches of snow possible in some places through Friday, Orrison said.

Along the warmer side of the storm, strong thunderstorms capable of damaging wind gusts and tornadoes were possible Thursday in parts of Mississippi and Alabama, the Storm Prediction Center said.

In western Alabama, several homes were damaged and people were injured and trapped following an apparent tornado in rural Hale County, Emergency Management Director Russell Weeden told WBMA-TV. The National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings in the region as a line of storms moved through.

More than 20 inches of snow was reported in the southern Rockies, while more than a foot of snow fell in areas of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.