alissa, annie, david and heather again. heather keeps me sane. she makes sure i don t completely go crazy on the air. thank you to you all. it takes a team to make some show work. paula reid coming up. you are live in the cnn newsroom. i m paula reid in washington. a christmas eve storm for the ages. we are tracking the very latest on the severe weather impacting millions across the u.s. at least 16 storm-related deaths have been reported, including two in erie county, new york, in what may be the area s worst winter storm since the famous 1977 buffalo blizzard. jefferson county, new york, is experiencing life-threatening blizzard conditions, banning travel and declaring a state of emergency. jaw dropping sub zero temperatures across huge swaths of the country. 100 people people remain under windchill alerts. atlanta and philadelphia are facing their coldest christmas ever. and nearly two million people are without power. power companies in ohio, kentucky, and memphis are
you are live in the cnn qwest newsroom, i m paula reid in washington. a monster winter storm has claimed the lives of 16 people and has cut power and electricity. the u.s. department is declaring an emergency for the texas power grid to aid its capacity and this is due to a shortage of electricity. the emergency declaration allows the state s energy provider to exceed environmental emissions limits until usage drops. in new york, a dire situation. hundreds of people have likely been trapped inside their vehicles since yesterday. that includes an 85-year-old grandmother and her son. they ve been turning the car on and off for heat and to save gas. sub-zero temperatures are widespread across the country and more than 750,000 customers remain without power. the power grid operator for 13 states is now asking residents to reduce their power usage to avoid widespread outages. holiday travel by road and air has been disrupted, and today alone more than 2600 flightses have be
were prepared and we were ready to support the needs of this storm. as i mentioned, we have actually over 1,500 federal responders that are on the ground in the affected area. this includes over 300 personnel from fema as well as over 500 urban search and rescue personnel ready to support any of the state s requests. as of 7:30 this morning and i know these numbers are dynamic and fluid. as of 7:30 this morning, there are nearly 3,000 customer outages for power in florida, and we do expect those numbers to continue to rise as the storm passes through and goes into georgia and we ll see power outage numbers for georgia, south carolina, and perhaps north carolina. our partners at the u.s. army corps of engineers are prepositioned to support power restoration and they have over 30 generators that are prestaged. additionally the utilities are preparing for storm impacts including prestaging crews and equipment outside of the projected storm track, and the state anticipates a total of
of the conservation efforts to keep us from having to take more severe measures potentially rotating customer outages which is what we re trying to prevent and conservation helps a lot. when can you expect customers to return to normal, normal everyday power usage? we re thinking tomorrow afternoon should be fine and many customers will be unaffected by this, but the customers who do have the opportunity to take some measures, that will be very helpful because we ve seen it work. i don t know if we said this in the introduction, but can you just clarify. how does someone know if this applies to them? what is the area? how can they find out? so pjm is 13 states and the district of columbia. we go from the new york border down to north carolina, out to chicago and down to tennessee. our thanks to michael bryson for all of that important information. let s go to cnn s carlos suarez
take more severe measures, potentially rotating customer outages, which is something we are trying to prevent. and conversation helps a lot. so when can you expect customers to be able to return to normal, normal every day power usage. we re thinking tomorrow around should be fine. and many customers will be unaffected by this. but the customers that do have the opportunity to take some measures, that will be very helpful because we have seen it work. i don t know if we said this during the introduction, how does someone know if this applies to them? what is the area? how can they find out. sure. p.j. m is 13 states and the district of columbia. we go from the new york border, down into north carolina, and tennessee. thank you so much for joining us. i appreciate you sharing that important information with us. thank you. well, holiday travel