Sean Breslin and Jan Wesner Childs
Winter Storm Elliott bore down on a wide swath of the U.S. Friday, bringing coastal flooding to the Northeast, a deadly pileup in Ohio, thousands of flight cancellations two days before Christmas and widespread power outages that left millions without electricity from Texas to Maine.
At least 11 people have been killed in fatal car crashes connected to the weather since Tuesday.
(MORE: Latest Forecast For Winter Storm Elliott)
Here are our live updates as the storm continued its trek east Friday.
(5:37 p.m. ET) Protect Yourself Against Carbon Monoxide Poisoning During Power Outages
Millions are without power amid brutally cold conditions and may turn to portable generators, or resort to using items that aren't meant for inside use, in order to try and keep warm. It's important to note that generators should always be placed at least 20 feet from any building or enclosed space and equipment such as gas or charcoal grills should never be used indoors due to the threat of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Click here to read more carbon monoxide safety tips.
(5:07 p.m. ET) Buffalo Airport Closed
Buffalo Niagara International Airport is shut down and all evening flights canceled.
(4:24 p.m. ET) Power Supply Scaling Back In Parts Of Tennessee
The Tennessee Valley Authority says customers may see intermittent loss of electricity as the power supply is lowered to some areas. The agency said any outages caused by the move will be brief, and are necessary to keep the grid stable and prevent broader loss of power.
The TVA provides electricity for 153 local power companies serving about 10 million in Tennessee and six neighboring states.
About 73,000 power outages are being reported in Tennessee right now, according to PowerOutage.us.
(3:58 p.m. ET) At Least One Dead In Ohio Pileup
At least one person is dead and multiple others injured after pileup involving at least 50 cars on Interstate 80 between Cleveland and Toledo. Emergency personnel from multiple agencies are on the scene.
The road is closed in both directions. Westbound traffic is being detoured at exit 118, while eastbound traffic is being rerouted at exit 91.
Video posted to social media showed the scene on the snowy stretch of road.
In all, at least 11 people have been killed in car crashes connected to the storm since Tuesday, including three each in Oklahoma and Missouri. The other deaths occurred in Missouri, Nebraska, Kentucky and Oregon.
(3:55 p.m. ET) County Official Describes Treacherous Situation In Buffalo Area
“Conditions are horrible. You can’t see past the hood of your vehicle," Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz told The Weather Channel in an interview a short while ago.
A travel ban remains in place in Erie and three other counties in the area.
“Unfortunately there are people who are violating the driving ban and putting their lives and the lives of our first responders at risk," Poloncarz said.
“People should not be on the roads … We don’t want people on the roads. It is life-threatening.”
Road conditions are being made hazardous by both blizzard conditions and coastal flooding in some areas. Mandatory evacuations are in place along parts of the Lake Erie shoreline, Poloncarz said.
“The lake has risen dramatically," he said. "It is in some areas 4 feet above flood stage.”
(3:30 p.m. ET) Parts Of New York State Thruway Closed
The New York State Thruway is shut down in two areas. One is on Interstate 90 from exit 46 at Henrietta to the Pennsylvania border. The other is on Interstate 190, from I-90 to exit 22.
Travelers in any storm-affected areas should pay close attention to road conditions and any warnings, closures or travel bans from local authorities.
(2:41 p.m. ET) Evacuations Advised Near Buffalo
Residents along parts of the Lake Erie shoreline in Evans, New York, are under a voluntary evacuation order and two evacuation shelters are open. Elliott is churning up high surf and coastal flooding in many areas.
The evacuation advisory applies to Lake Erie Beach, Grandview Bay, Purvis Landing and Wendt Beach.
(1:21 p.m. ET) Death Toll Rises
A third death is being blamed on a weather-related crash in Oklahoma.
That brings the total number of deaths from the storm to eight, including others who died in fatal crashes in Kentucky, Nebraska, Kansas and Oregon.
(1:02 p.m. ET) More Than 4,200 Flights Canceled
Travel woes are climbing in some areas, as cancellations and delays continue to pileup. Airports most affected include Seattle-Tacoma International, where a second winter storm moved in.
In the middle and eastern parts of the country, more than 400 flights to or from Chicago O-Hare are canceled, about the same number at New York's LaGuardia, and more than 300 at Detroit Metro Wayne County, according to airline tracker FlightAware.com.
(12:57 p.m. ET) Power Outages Top 1.5 Million
Millions of people are without electricity as bitter cold sets in to some areas. States with most outages right now, according to PowerOutage.us, include North Carolina, 181,930; Virginia, 112,295; Connecticut, 87,124; New York, 84,339; Tennessee, 79,124
Each outage represents a single utility account that could include multiple people.
(12:36 p.m. ET) Families Make The Best Of No Power Two Days Before Christmas
Renée Dyer, a novelist in Epping, N.H., told the New York Times that her family is changing things up for the holiday weekend since they're not sure when the power might come back on.
Instead of the chocolate cake they were making, they've switched to no-bake eggnog cheesecake.
“Even if we don’t have our oven back, we can still make a festive dessert,” Dyer said.
Alternate plans for Christmas dinner are still in the works.
“It might end up being a spaghetti night,” Dyer said. “Whenever things don’t go the way you plan, just make a new plan, and try to make it as fun as possible.”
Dyer is among the millions of people across the eastern half of the U.S. without power today.
(12:10 p.m. ET.) 'Extremely Tough' Situation in Freeport, New York
“We had substantial flooding this morning. Many homes got flooded, streets, cars were stopped in the middle of the street,” Mayor Robert Kennedy said in an interview on The Weather Channel.
Several people had to be rescued from cars overcome by floodwaters. Kennedy said the area received heavy rain yesterday followed by high tide this morning, and now the weather is turning bitterly cold.
“It’s been extremely tough," he said.
Freeport sits on the coast about 20 miles southeast of New York City.
(11:36 a.m. ET) Two Dead In Oklahoma
The death from weather-related traffic crashes is rising. The latest deaths confirmed by The Weather Channel come from Oklahoma, where the highway patrol says there have been two fatal crashes, each killing one person. They happened near the town of Gage, in Ellis County in the northern part of the state, and in Paden, about 55 miles southwest of Tulsa.
That brings the total number of deaths from the storm to eight, including others who died in fatal crashes in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Nebraska, Kansas and Oregon.
(10:50 a.m. ET) Icy Pileup On Michigan Interstate
There are reports of injuries after an icy pileup on I-94 near Benton Harbor amid a brutal combination of wind gusts up to 45 mph, visibility at about one-eight of a mile and wind chills lower than minus 20 degrees.
(10:32 a.m. ET) Trees, Power Lines Down In Connecticut
Trees and utility poles were knocked down by wind earlier this morning in Tolland, Connecticut, about 18 miles northeast of Hartford. The Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, about 70 miles southwest of Hartford, was also damaged.
(10:25 a.m. ET) Reports Of Homes Flooded In New York City
Video posted to social media showed people wading through high water and first responders on the scene in the Howard Beach section of Queens. There are reports that some are evacuating flooded homes.
(10:21 a.m. ET) Waves Crash Over Roads In Maine
High surf is crashing over roads in parts of Maine. Police in Wells, about 20 miles north of Portsmouth, are asking people to avoid driving along the coast.
(10:13 a.m. ET) Nashville Hits 0 Degrees For The First Time This Century
Temperatures dropped to zero this morning in Nashville. That last time it was that cold there was 1996, according to the National Weather Service.
Social media posts from the area showed wind and blowing snow overnight.
(9:40 a.m. ET) Death Toll Rises To Six
The Weather Channel has confirmed at least six deaths in Winter Storm Elliott. Officials said a fatal crash Wednesday in York, Nebraska, was blamed on the winter storm's conditions. The driver of the single-car crash was identified as Louis Coyle, 84, of Lehigh, Kansas, according to KOLN-TV.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed the sixth death during an interview with The Weather Channel this morning. He disclosed that a driver died in a crash blamed on wintry conditions but did not provide further details.
(9:30 a.m. ET) Power Outages Top 1 Million
More than 1 million homes and businesses from Texas eastward have lost power because of Winter Storm Elliott, according to PowerOutage.us. North Carolina and Connecticut had the most outages, with more than 100,000 customers in the dark in each state.
(9:20 a.m. ET) Elliott Is Officially A Bomb Cyclone
As of this morning, low pressure has intensified quickly enough near the Great Lakes to be considered a bomb cyclone.
Its central pressure dropped 24 millibars – a measure of pressure used by meteorologists – in less than 24 hours, meeting the bomb cyclone criterion.
It is expected to intensify further over eastern Canada before slowly weakening beginning later Saturday.
(8:20 a.m. ET) Blowout Tide Reported Along Texas Coast
As flooding worsened along the Northeast coast, the opposite effect was playing out along the Texas coast as the cold air pushed southward. In Trinity Bay, near Galveston, a blowout tide was reported and sections of the bay had no water at all.
(7:55 a.m. ET) Blowing Snow Has Dayton, Ohio, Looking Like The High Plains
Footage captured early this morning by storm chaser Simon Brewer showed blowing snow in Dayton, Ohio, that significantly reduced visibility and made travel very dangerous. The video nearly resembled footage from parts of Wyoming a day earlier.
You can see the scenes in Dayton here.
(7:30 a.m. ET) Coastal Flooding Reported On Long Island
The impacts of the storm system are far-reaching, and that's evident along parts of the Northeast coast, including Long Island, where coastal flooding is on the rise. Video posted to Twitter by storm chaser Nicholas Isabella showed streets under water in Freeport, New York.
(5:40 a.m. ET) Emergency Declared In South Dakota
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem declared a state of emergency in South Dakota, according to the Associated Press. As part of the declaration, the National Guard has been activated to deliver firewood to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, which requested help as roads became impassable due to 10-foot snow drifts.
South Dakota joins Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and New York as states whose governors have declared an emergency due to the winter storm.
(5:10 a.m. ET) Thousands More Flights Canceled
In what has been a nightmarish holiday travel week, some 3,000 flights into and out of U.S. airports have been canceled today, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. This comes after more than 2,600 flights were canceled yesterday.
Some of the domestic flight cancellations are in the Pacific Northwest, where Winter Storm Fernando is causing additional travel problems, but hubs like LaGuardia Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport have been affected especially badly in the path of Elliott today.
(5 a.m. ET) Conditions Deteriorate In Northeast Ohio
The Cleveland area is seeing strong winds and blowing snow as Winter Storm Elliott moves in. Local reporter Katie Tercek said at least one spinout had occurred on Interstate 90.
(4:45 a.m. ET) Winds Whipping, Temperatures Plunging In Nashville
In Nashville, where temperatures fell more than 30 degrees in three hours Thursday evening, video from the National Weather Service shows whipping winds as snow falls this morning.
(4:30 a.m. ET) 100,000 Customers Lose Power In Georgia
Strong winds and plunging temperatures knocked out power to at least 100,000 homes and businesses in Georgia, mostly north and east of Atlanta, according to PowerOutage.us. Across the South, more than 300,000 customers were in the dark this morning.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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