NASHVILLE—As a vast winter storm continues to make its way across the eastern United States, various municipalities have begun to report deaths as hundreds of thousands of people remain without power and thousands more remain stranded in airports across the country.

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that at least five people had been found dead outside as temperatures dove to as low as 9 degrees Fahrenheit on Jan. 24. He noted that the cause of their deaths remained under investigation. Mamdani urged people to stay inside and off the roads as New York state remains in a state of emergency.

Two men also died of hypothermia related to the storm in Caddo Parish in Louisiana, according to the state health department.

Meanwhile, roads remain impassable across much of the country as hundreds of thousands of Americans are in the dark due to power outages brought about by the snow, ice, and wind that accompanied the storm.

As of 10 p.m. ET Sunday, PowerOutage.com reported that over 879,000 Americans are still without power, down from a peak of over 1 million during the early morning hours.

Many Americans and international travelers were stranded after U.S. airlines were forced to cancel more than 11,400 flights.

According to flight tracker FlyAware, the airports most affected were Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, and all three of the New York area airports—LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty Airport, and John F Kennedy International Airport.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines had the most flights nixed, with each canceling more than 1,200 flights on Sunday alone. Delta Air Lines announced on Sunday it will operate a reduced flight schedule due to the frozen temperatures.

The weekend storm dumped snow and glazed power lines with ice from the Southern Rocky Mountains and into New England.

Tennessee’s power grid was the most heavily affected by the storm, with more than 336,000 power outages.

Nashville was the most impacted city in the state and the country, with more than 200,000 residents waking up to no power and thick layers of ice covering roads, sidewalks, and cars.

“The combination of freezing rain and ice has hit our community hard today,” Nashville Electric Service wrote on X Sunday.

“Weighted down by ice, trees are snapping and taking down power lines across the area.”

As of 2:45 p.m. ET, Mississippi had more than 174,000 outages as Louisiana experienced nearly 150,000 outages.

Tree branches and leaves are coated with ice as more than 200,000 people woke up without power in Tennessee, in Lebanon, Tenn., on Jan. 25, 2026. (Jacki Thrapp/The Epoch Times)

The Texas Department of Transportation urged drivers to stay off the road as their plows worked to remove the snow.

“An ode to travelers: STAY HOME! And if you can’t, STAY BACK!,” the Texas Department of Transportation wrote in an X post on Sunday morning.

Power started being restored in Texas but tens of thousands of people were still without lights.

Georgia, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Alabama had tens of thousands of people without power around Sunday afternoon.

President Donald Trump approved federal emergency disaster declarations on Saturday for South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.

“As severe weather crosses the Volunteer State this weekend, we are grateful for the Trump administration’s efforts to protect and support Tennesseans,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote in an X post on Jan. 24.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that the storm will rage on with a wintry mix of conditions until Monday.

“Up to eighteen inches will fall over New England, and 0.50 inches of freezing rain over parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio/Tennessee Valleys,” an advisory from the NWS predicted.

​The NWS also warned that states in the Eastern Gulf Coast may experience severe thunderstorms that produce damaging gusts and tornadoes on Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.