The President of the United States, Donald Trump, assured on Friday night (23) that the country is prepared for a mega snowstorm that is expected to affect 180 million people — more than half of the American population.
“I was informed about the record cold snap and historic winter storm that will hit much of the United States this weekend. The Trump administration is coordinating actions with state and local authorities. FEMA (the national emergency response service) is fully prepared to respond. Stay safe and stay warm!”, he said, in a message published on the social network Truth Social.
According to the federal agency responsible for weather forecasting, the storm is expected to hit a wide range that runs from New Mexico, in the southwest of the country, to Maine, in the extreme northeast.
The swath affected by the storm includes many of the most populous cities in the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Washington. In some regions, the forecast is for an accumulation of 45 centimeters of snow by Monday.
This Saturday, the agency issued a statement stating that the intensity of the snowfall will harm the work of cleaning public roads, which should prolong the impacts on infrastructure and the risk of automobile accidents until the beginning of next week. According to the agency, there could also be “catastrophic impacts” further south, where the tendency is for a storm of freezing rain instead of snow. This alert applies to states like Mississippi and Tennessee.
On Saturday morning, even before the storm began, the FlightAware tool recorded 3,675 canceled flights in the United States. More than 10,000 flights were delayed.