The one that has affected two-thirds of the American geography has caused this Sunday the worst day of flight cancellations since the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, with more than 11,000 cancellations and 17,000 delays, according to the federal Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy.
In an interview with the network, Duffy announced that, for Monday, there will be about 2,600 flight cancellations.
“We hope it improves, but what we see is that the airlines are dealing with this massive delay,” noted the Secretary of Transportation, who noted that “we must work on this accumulated delay and maintain the current flight structure for the next few days, whether Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.”
However, the secretary stressed that “there is no capacity in the airlines to relocate two and a half days of people on planes.”
Duffy said it’s important to “pay attention” to see which airlines are “better-behaving” with their fares during this crisis, as some “are price gouging.”
“One of the problems is that it’s going to continue to be cold in the South and Southwest until Tuesday or Wednesday. But in the Midwest and North, it will be until the end of the week before those temperatures start to rise. So, in places where we have ice, it is more difficult to become fully functional quickly,” he said.
Also the roads
The Secretary of Transportation also noted that not only are airports specifically being affected by this storm, but also the roads of the United States.
“New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut have closed their highways to commercial transportation. We have 17 states along this stretch of the storm that have closed lanes for plowing and salting and many of these states have reduced speed limits on our highways,” Duffy explained.
However, Duffy stressed that once the storm is over and salt and dirt are put on the roads, traffic “will return to normal.”
The most disadvantaged
People walk during a heavy snowfall, in Manhattan (New York, United States), on January 25, 2026.
Beyond transportation, the great storm this Sunday left more than a million users without electricity, especially in the south, and has claimed the lives of at least five people throughout the country due to hypothermia, according to local media. Data from the specialized website show 1,045,496 supply cuts.
Ice is wreaking havoc in the South, and power outages are hitting Tennessee especially hard, where more than 338,000 customers, about 10% of the state, are without power. Just under 100,000 users were without electricity in Texas, while in Louisiana and Mississippi there were around 145,000 and 175,000 users without service, respectively, according to the same website.
The storm has left streets and highways difficult to navigate from Texas, through Oklahoma or Tennessee, to Pennsylvania and New York, due to the amount of snow and ice.
According to the storm has left at least five dead: two in Louisiana and three in New York, all from hypothermia.
The even lower temperatures expected in the coming days, with minimums on Tuesday on the East Coast that will be around 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius), keep authorities alert due to the formation of thick layers of ice and the effects they have on basic services and infrastructure.
The tips
In turn, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, has asked the population of the more than 20 states that have activated emergency protocols to avoid leaving home and has assured that the Federal Government is cooperating with states and electric companies to expedite repairs to the electrical grid as soon as possible in the face of the even more intense cold that is approaching.
By Monday morning, the largest accumulations will likely be in an area that includes parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont.
The mayor of New York, announced that there will be no in-person classes on Monday. “It will be a day of remote classes for New York City schools in order to ensure everyone’s safety in the face of adverse weather conditions,” the mayor noted in a statement.
