U.S. : Winter storm causes airlines to cancel flights
A major winter storm has brought heavy snow and ice to parts of the U.S. and Canada, putting more than 80 million people under weather warnings. More than 145,000 people are without power in some south-eastern states, and thousands of flights are cancelled.
Airlines canceled over 2,700 U.S. flights on Sunday as a winter storm combining high winds and ice was poised to hit the U.S. East Coast over the holiday weekend.
Charlotte is a major hub in the south for American Airlines. In Atlanta, where Delta Air Lines operates its main hub, more than 300 Sunday flights had been canceled.
The state’s transportation secretary, J Eric Boyette, said many roads in the central and western part of the state were covered with ice. He said the eastern part of the state was being hit with high winds and rain.
More than 260,000 customers were without power by mid-afternoon Sunday, according to poweroutage.us, which fell to about 150,000 customers by Sunday night. Especially hard hit was North Carolina, with 90,000 outages. The remaining outages were in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.
Philadelphia was added to the winter weather advisory Sunday evening and snow began just after 6 p.m., CNN’s Gene Norman said. He added the city would likely see a few hours of snow before it mixed with rain overnight. Light snow began falling in New York City around 7 p.m. and flurries are also possible in Boston, he said.
