US battered by major winter storm

Last week, the National Weather Service issued a warning saying that "nearly everyone east of the Rockies" would see some effect of a major winter storm starting on Friday and lasting through early next week. Overall, around 220 million people across the United States experienced heavy snow and ice, significantly impacting their daily lives.

States in the southeast were hit the hardest by power outages, with over 600,000 people experiencing outages across multiple states. In Tennessee, over 200,000 customers experienced power outages. Over 100,000 people in both Louisiana and Mississippi and several thousand people in Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, and Viginia also experienced outages.

"I don't think any of us could have prepared for what we got. It has just been catastrophic," said Robyn Tannehill, mayor of Oxford, Mississippi, which had been hit hard by the storm. "It literally looks like a tornado has gone down every street in our community."

Power outages have forced some people to seek shelter in warmer areas, either in hotels or warming centers set up by local governments. "We know not everyone can drive, and we don't want transportation to be a barrier to getting to someplace warm if your power is out," said Nashville mayor Freddie O'Connell.

Throughout the rest of the week, 24 states and the District of Columbia could see record low temperatures. Forecasters are also monitoring the potential for another winter storm near the East Coast this weekend.

This extended cold could also lead to another round of outages in some areas as demand for energy strains electrical grids to their limits. According to PJM, the largest U.S. grid operator serving over 67 million people, demand could peak to over 130,000 megawatts for seven straight days, which would mark "a winter streak that PJM has never experienced."

"They may run into a similar issue that we saw in Texas [in 2021]," said Alex Shattuck, director of grid transformation at the Energy Systems Integration Group. In 2021, Texas experienced a grid failure during a severe winter storm that left millions of people without power for days.

According to a 2020 report from the American Heart Association, shoveling snow is one of the top physical activities that can stress the heart, especially if a person is not used to exercising. Even shoveling snow for just 10 minutes can elevate a person's heart rate to 97% of its maximal predicted rates. 

"Snow shoveling is definitely associated with an increased risk of both heart attack and sudden cardiac death, especially in men and those with unknown cardiac coronary heart disease, or with multiple cardiac risk factors," said Christopher Kramer, a cardiologist at University of Virginia Health and president of the American College of Cardiology. 

As the cold weather and poor conditions continue, many medical professionals say they plan to spend another night at the hospital so they can help patients.

"I'm staying here, there's a big room they set up, they put the beds out," said Gio Delgadillo, who is part of Medical City Plano's respiratory team. " […] It's critical because we're a part of these patients' lives," he said. "From the moment they're born in deliveries, a respiratory therapist has to be there when a baby is delivered. If they have to go to NICU, we're there. Adult patients who go to ICU. End-of-life care, we're also there."