More than 1.5 million Americans were cut off from electricity on Christmas Eve because of a winter storm that swept across much of the United States, according to PowerOutage at 11:30 A.M. Eastern time.
The site, which tracks, records, and aggregates information about power outages across the United States, revealed that more than a million Americans were without power shortly before noon on Christmas Eve.
According to the website, the Southeast area of the United States had been the most affected, with 566,200 power outages. In that region, more than 370,000 of those affected lived in North Carolina.
Power Outage tallied the number of outages for each region as follows:
- South East… 566,200
- New England… 362,911
- South… 325,259
- Mid-Atlantic… 210,734
- Great Lakes… 24,366
- Pacific… 20,028
- MidWest… 1,850
- Territories… 1,821
- Mountain… 988
A report by Fox Weather noted that officials had predicted sub-zero temperatures. These can be a major cause of power outages at this time of the year, affecting several areas of the United States. Because temperatures are so low, power outages during the winter season are considered to be potentially life-threatening.
On Saturday, “the winter bomb cyclone” was expected to move on from the United States and into Canada. However, snowfalls were forecast to be heavy, with persistent winds likely to bring dangerously cold wind chills, which could pose a significant risk to people without power and could cause more power interruptions, Fox Weather reported.
