By JEFF MARTIN Associated Press
KENNESAW, Ga. (AP) — As a deadly storm that brought crippling ice to the South and deep snow to the Northeast finally began to swirl out to sea Monday, it represented light at the end of the tunnel for some.
But thousands of Americans were still without power or heat, and temperatures were forecast to plunge well below freezing by early Tuesday in areas where the ice storm did its worst damage.
More than 800,000 power outages were reported nationwide Monday morning, with more than 150,000 of them in the Nashville, Tennessee, area, according to poweroutage.com. About 140,000 remained without power in hard-hit Mississippi, and 115,000 more in icy Louisiana.
After a sleepless night in Iuka, Mississippi, Adrian Ronca-Hohn said he awoke Monday to what looked “like a war zone.”
“We couldn’t go 10 seconds without hearing what sounded like a gunshot,” the 23-year-old football coach said of falling trees and branches. “You’d hear a pop, a hard pop, and you’d hear the whistle of it falling, and then it would crash to the ground and just kind of explode.”
As temperatures across the South are expected to reach their coldest this week early Tuesday morning, people without power are trying to survive.
“We have a lot of people without heat, without power and without water,” Ronca-Hohn said. We have a lot of mobile homes down here that aren’t very well-insulated.”
Here’s a look at the storm by the numbers.
1
One inch of ice (2.5 centimeters) recorded in multiple communities across Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alabama, and South Carolina.
1
The temperature in Fahrenheit (minus 17 Celsius) that’s expected early Tuesday morning in Tennessee’s capital city, where thousands remain without power.
6.7
Inches of sleet (17 centimeters) that fell at Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, according to preliminary totals.
10
The number of days it could take to restore power in Allen County, Kentucky, city officials said. Other communities estimated similar time frames. In New Albany, Mississippi, the city utility warned Sunday that restoring power to all its customers “will take a minimum of a week and possibly more depending on conditions.”
22.2
Inches of snow (56.4 centimeters) that fell during the storm in Sterling, Massachusetts. The number is a preliminary figure through Monday morning.
47
The number of places in Nashville where people without power can go to warm up and charge their phones, including fire and police stations.
50
The temperature in Fahrenheit (50 Celsius) inside Marshall Ramsey’s home in Oxford, Mississippi, on Monday morning after he lost power. The weekend ice storm “was like a demonic symphony of trees breaking, transformers blowing and thunder,” said Ramsey, a longtime editorial cartoonist who now teaches at the University of Mississippi.
200-plus
The number of dogs rescued from a rural property in the Tupelo, Mississippi, area just before the ice storm by Paws of War. The New York-based nonprofit rescues animals and places them with veterans and first responders.
160,000
The number of customers without power in Mississippi on Monday afternoon, according to poweroutage.com.
169,000
The number of Nashville Electric Service customers without power in the Nashville area on Monday afternoon, according to the company.
244,000
The number of customers without power in Tennessee on Monday afternoon, according to poweroutage.com.
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Associated Press Writers Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Kristin M. Hall in Nashville; Jake Offenhartz in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut.