The winter storm that forecasters dubbed Elliott intensified into a bomb cyclone near the Great Lakes on Friday, bringing high winds and blizzard conditions from the Northern Plains to western and upstate New York, along with life-threatening flooding, flash-freezing and travel chaos as it went.
More than 4,600 flights were canceled as of 3pm, on top of 2,700 cancellations Thursday, grounding tens of thousands of holiday travelers in airports with limited expectations of making further progress, according to FlightAware.
The storm, estimated to be 2,000 miles wide, has produced driving snow and plummeting temperatures, knocking out power from Texas to Maine. Officials ordered cars off the roads as US forecasters warned of “potentially crippling impacts across central and eastern” parts of the country.
The arrival of the artic blast produced widespread disruption to utilities, with more than 1.5m households estimated to be without power. At the White House, after Joe Biden was briefed on Elliot, the president said: “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid. This is serious stuff.”
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