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(Reuters) – A massive winter storm moving through the U.S. Midwest left more than 250,000 customers without power in Michigan and Wisconsin on Friday, ahead of a brutal freeze expected to cover the region starting this end of this year. week.
Some 151,203 homes and businesses were without power in Michigan, according to data from , a website that tracks, records and aggregates data on power outages in the US.
In Wisconsin, 102,692 customers were without power as of midnight Friday.
Airlines delayed more than 7,600 flights across the United States on Friday, including grounded planes at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, due to blinding winds and snow.
In Iowa, Republican presidential candidates canceled events three days before the state caucuses, the first of the state-by-state contests in which parties choose their candidates for the November elections.
The extreme weather is a reminder of the February 2021 freeze that left millions of people in Texas and other central states without power, water and heat for days, and a winter storm in December 2022 – known as Elliott in the energy industry. – which almost caused the collapse. and systems in parts of the eastern half of the country.
The storm comes ahead of what will likely be the country's coldest weather since December 2022, according to data from financial firm LSEG.
