SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
We turn now to the winter storm moving from the southwest to the east that has left more than 140,000 utility customers without power. Thousands of flights were canceled for today and tomorrow, and officials are warning people to stay home.
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JOSH STEIN: Fellow North Carolinians, this is a serious storm. We are taking it seriously, and so should you.
MCCAMMON: That's North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, who says he asked for and President Trump granted an emergency declaration to release federal help in that state. Some parts of the country are forecast to receive more than a foot of snow along with freezing rain, sleet and ice. NPR's Jeff Brady joins us now from Philadelphia. Hi, Jeff. How's it going?
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Hey, Sarah.
MCCAMMON: What preparations are you seeing there?
BRADY: Well, the storm should arrive here tonight. Grocery stores and places that have sidewalk salt and snow shovels still in stock - they were very busy today. Some schools announced they're going to be closed Monday, and right now, the National Weather Service says up to a foot of snow by Monday morning is going to come. After that, a week of cold days with overnight temperatures in the single digits.
MCCAMMON: Happy news for some children, if not for their parents who have to shovel. It's going to be a really big storm stretching from New Mexico all the way to New England. What are some of the effects so far?
BRADY: More than 30 states are under some sort of winter weather advisory for snow, sleet, wind and extreme cold. Governors in more than a dozen states have warned their residents about the storm and declared some form of emergency or state of preparation. In the city of International Falls, Minnesota, the National Weather Service recorded a wind chill of minus-51 degrees early this morning, and forecasters warned freezing rain and ice could be a problem from the Southern plains to the mid-Atlantic and the Southeastern U.S. They warned of, quote, "catastrophic ice accumulation." That's dangerous for travel but also for trees and power lines.
MCCAMMON: You know, power outages are always a concern with these kinds of storms. How well are utility crews staying ahead of it?
BRADY: You know, so far, outages have not been widespread. They did increase through the day with more than 140,000 customers losing power by this afternoon. Texas had the most outages, but that was still less than 1% of customers. Texas gets a lot of attention because of a winter storm five years ago that left millions statewide without power in freezing temperatures. Hundreds of people died in that storm, and energy consultant Allison Silverstein says a lot of work has been done to help power plants operate in cold weather, and she says there's more renewable energy and battery storage on the Texas grid now.
ALISON SILVERSTEIN: We have far more power plants and batteries on the ground today. We have all of this winterization, and we're just better prepared and more paranoid and have better strategies to deal with it.
BRADY: Silverstein says it's too soon to say if Texas will make it through this storm OK. There's some cold weather to come. She says, this morning, the temperature in Austin dropped from the 50s into the 30s.
MCCAMMON: It's colder than that here, let me tell you, but it's not Texas. So, you know, as the storm moves east, Jeff, what should be - we be watching out for?
BRADY: Lots of canceled flights - the storm is sweeping across the South with freezing rain and sleet and up to the Northeast in New England, with up to two feet of snow expected in some places and then cold temperatures for next week.
MCCAMMON: NPR's Jeff Brady, thanks so much.
BRADY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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