Death Toll From Sprawling Winter Storm Reaches 85 as South Struggles With Cold and Outages

WASHINGTON — At least 85 people have died across multiple states following a sprawling winter storm that swept from the southern Plains to the Northeast over the final weekend of January, according to a tally reported by The Associated Press, as communities in the South continued to grapple with power outages and a prolonged deep freeze.

The storm, which began late on Jan. 23 and lasted through Jan. 26, placed more than 160 million people under some form of winter weather hazard at its peak, according to the National Weather Service. More than 15 states declared emergencies as ice, sleet and heavy snow spread across a corridor stretching more than 3,000 kilometers from New Mexico to Maine.

Ice Belt Across the South

Forecasters had warned that the most damaging element would be freezing rain across a band running from northern Texas through the Carolinas, a region that includes Dallas, Memphis, Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh. Southern states typically have limited snowplow fleets and road-treatment equipment, leaving many roads impassable for days.

Ice accumulation on trees and power lines caused widespread failures. At the height of the event, more than one million customers across the South were without electricity, and airlines canceled more than 10,000 flights as major hubs struggled to keep runways clear.

Rising Toll

Officials attributed the deaths to a range of causes, including hypothermia, suspected carbon monoxide poisoning and accidents involving vehicles, sleds and snowplows.

Mississippi reported four additional deaths on Thursday, bringing its storm-related total to 14, according to the governor’s office. More than 95,000 customers in the state remained without power heading into another cold weekend. The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed 13 weather-related fatalities.

In Texas, authorities reported several deaths, including three brothers who fell through ice into a pond and two teenage girls killed when a sled being towed by a vehicle struck a curb and hit a tree. In New York City, officials said at least 10 people had been found dead outdoors during the freeze.

Cold Expected to Linger

Restoration crews continued working through bitterly cold conditions, and health officials repeated warnings against running generators or grills indoors, a leading cause of carbon monoxide poisoning during extended outages.

Forecasters said temperatures across much of the eastern United States were likely to remain well below seasonal norms into early February. A separate system was expected to bring the threat of blizzard conditions to parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee over the coming weekend, raising concern that recovering communities could face fresh outages.

Emergency managers urged residents in affected areas to check on elderly neighbors, limit travel and use designated warming centers where available.