Lawmakers hope to derail radioactive waste permit - Austin Fisher, Source NM
Across the United States, there is about 100,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons development, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reaching the end of their safety and environmental reviews for a proposal to build a storage facility for that waste between Carlsbad and Hobbs.
Holtec International, a Florida-based company, is asking the NRC for a 40-year “consolidated interim storage license” that would allow it to store high-level nuclear waste from around the U.S. in New Mexico.
“Interim” is really a misnomer, and the facility would actually become the de facto permanent dumping ground for radioactive waste for the entire country, according to N.M.environment officials and state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces).
Steinborn is backing House Bill 127 and sponsoring an identical bill on the Senate side. Both ban the storage or disposal of spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste.
“There is no permanent repository that has been designated in the nation,” he pointed out Thursday morning during a committee hearing. If permitted, Steinborn said, the Holtec project would negatively impact the state for the next 100 years..
The NRC permit that Holtec wants could be renewed for an additional 40 years, said Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Santa Fe), a co-sponsor of the proposed ban.
“I think once it’s been here that long, I’m not optimistic about it moving elsewhere,” McQueen said. “And of course, if it does move elsewhere, that’s a whole ‘nother issue of transportation.”
The House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee passed the bill on a 5-4 party-line vote.
The committee will meet again on Saturday to hear House Bill 164, which would order state agencies to work together to clean up uranium mines in the state. The Church Rock spill north of Gallup near the Navajo Nation was the third-largest nuclear disaster in world history.
Seneca Johnson, an organizer with Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, said her group is gravely concerned with the generation and handling of radioactive wastes, whether from nuclear weapons, nuclear energy or fracking.
“We’re strongly opposed to the idea that New Mexico should be a dumping ground for this waste,” Johnson said. YUCCA has been calling for a ban on the storage of high-level nuclear waste in New Mexico, and she said they are grateful to Steinborn for adding that protection to the bill.
Joan Brown, a Franciscan sister with New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, said faith leaders in the southeastern part of the state have been working for years to stop the Holtec project.
The places the waste will be transported through along railroad lines are usually low-income households or families, Brown said.
“Pope Francis talks about the ‘throwaway culture’ and says that we are in that kind of a mindset,” Brown said. “In this state, we are not a throwaway people, a throwaway state or a throwaway place. So we strongly support this bill.”
New Mexico Environment Department experts have found multiple environmental concerns in Holtec’s proposal that neither the company nor the NRC have addressed, according to Rebecca Roose, deputy secretary of the department.
Those include inadequate studies of how radioactive the materials are, how water flows in and around the site, the ways people and the environment could be exposed to radiation, and whether the project would increase the frequency of earthquakes in the surrounding Permian Basin, which is the largest oil producing region of the world, Roose said.
Rail problems, safety problems
There are about 120 different power plants that would send waste to the site if Holtec gets the permit, said Don Hancock, of the Albuquerque-based nonprofit Southwest Research and Information Center.
The waste is stored in about 1,000 casks, Steinborn said. Over the last 10 years, Steinborn said, NRC has documented nearly 100 safety violations involving these casks.
Shipping this many casks has never been done before in the country and probably ever in the world, Steinborn said.
Steinborn said he spoke with the owner of the shipping company Holtec intends to use.
“He hasn’t done a whole lot of rail in his career — he and I have talked — he had a rail accident,” Steinborn said. “It happens. It’s the cost of doing business.”
If such an accident were to happen as radioactive waste was being transported, first responders in the state would be responsible, Steinborn said, and they would not be ready to handle it. Plus, the rail infrastructure in the state would need to be upgraded to be able to transport the waste in the first place, he said.
Holtec would move the waste under armed guard and with the path kept top secret, Steinborn said, but every bit of it would end up going through Roswell as it made its way to the facility site in Lea County.
And maybe more than once if the storage really is temporary.
“I feel really bad — we talk about environmental justice — really bad for a community that’s gonna have 10,000 shipments of dry cask storage going by it,” he said, “potentially not just once but twice.”
Plan to gun down feral cattle spurs concern among ranchers - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
A plan by U.S. Forest Service officials to put a dent in the population of feral cattle on national forest land near the New Mexico-Arizona border is drawing fire from ranchers who say gunning down the animals from helicopters is a violation of federal law and won't help to solve the problem.
The New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association is concerned about the ability of the wildlife agents to delineate branded from unbranded livestock, saying mistakenly killing cows with brands would amount to the taking of private property.
Environmentalists also have long voiced concerns that leaving cow carcasses on the landscape will only help condition Mexican gray wolves to prey on livestock. Ranchers worry the upcoming aerial gunning operation on the Gila National Forest could exacerbate conflicts with the endangered species.
Federal officials did not immediately say how many wild cattle will be targeted during the operation, which is aimed at keeping the animals from grazing in sensitive habitat along streams and wetlands. A previous effort by a contractor to catch and remove wild cattle from the area netted about 20 animals.
The Cattle Growers' Association argues that since the number of feral cattle in the Gila National Forest is unknown, there is no way to hold federal officials accountable or determine if progress is being made in reducing the population.
Loren Patterson, president of the ranchers group, said the situation is the result of "many years of mismanagement by the Forest Service."
"New Mexico Cattle Growers' members understand that estray cattle are not good for the multi-use doctrine embraced by our federally administered lands," Patterson said in a statement. "This situation took years to create, and a final solution may take years to achieve."
Regional forest service officials did not immediately respond to a message sent Friday seeking details about the wild cattle and the planned operation.
The association contends there is no federal statute or regulation that allows for the Forest Service to gun down livestock and that rounding up and impounding livestock is allowed only after certain conditions are met. The group said government agencies should provide adequate notice and allow public comment before "imposing their will to proceed as they deem equitable."
A similar proposal was floated by forest officials last year. That prompted a notice of intent to sue by ranchers, a coalition of Arizona and New Mexico counties and others. The New Mexico Livestock Board also rejected any discussion of aerial gunning.
Some ranchers pointed out that the planned operation follows a series of recent settlements between the federal government and environmentalists that aim to keep livestock out of riparian areas on forest lands in the Southwest. They questioned why federal officials are resorting to lethal means with cattle despite the push by environmentalists and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to handle problem wolves with nonlethal methods such as hazing.
Nelson Shirley with Spur Lake Cattle Co. said persistent efforts by environmentalists to get the federal government to retire more grazing allotments have resulted in more feral cattle on the landscape.
"There's nobody to keep the fences up and nobody there to brand these cattle and do something with them," he said. "The Forest Service is to blame for leaving so many permits vacant. Getting ranchers back on these allotments to fix fences and gather cattle would help to solve the problem."
Federal wildlife officials also are in the midst of conducting an annual survey of Mexican gray wolves along the New Mexico-Arizona border. The results are expected in the coming weeks.
The survey done last year showed at least 186 Mexican gray wolves in the two states. That marks the fifth straight year that the endangered species increased its numbers.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday in a statement that it does not think the operation will have an effect on wolves "due to the short-term nature of the carcasses and the limited utilization of the area by Mexican wolves."
Eviction hearings resume in two NM counties after a two-year pause – By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The last statewide eviction ban in the nation ended quietly this week in a Portales, N.M. magistrate courtroom.
After nearly two years, the state court system began allowing eviction cases for non-payment of rent to proceed, beginning in the Ninth Judicial District and eventually spreading to the rest of the state.
The state Supreme Court recently announced a new diversion program meant to replace the eviction moratorium. The ban, imposed March 24, 2020, prevented judges from ordering evictions if a New Mexico tenant was behind on rent. It was an effort to keep people housed as the coronavirus pandemic devastated the state and global economy.
Before the ban is lifted statewide, the new program is being implemented first in the Ninth Judicial District, which includes Roosevelt and Curry Counties, and the cities of Clovis and Portales. It’s a month-long experiment to see how the diversion program works before it’s expanded throughout the state sometime in March.
Court calendars showed an eviction hearing Tuesday for non-payment and breach of rental agreement between a landlord and tenant on S Avenue in Portales, a duplex that houses an apartment and a church. The tenant owes $4,200 in back rent, the landlord alleges. It’s not clear from court records what happened in that case.
That’s the only hearing occurring in Roosevelt County. In Curry County, at least seven cases are being heard this week, according to court calendars. Tenants in those cases owe as little as $450 and up to about $5,000, according to court records.
The landlords getting their day in court this week have generally previously convinced a judge to order an eviction, but that eviction was stayed by the Supreme Court order.
The new rules from the Supreme Court instruct judges to give landlords and the tenants they’re trying to evict the choice to enroll in the Eviction Prevention and Diversion Program. If they agree, the judge delays the hearing for 60 days and gives both parties time to come to an agreement. Both parties are given information about the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which pays landlords rent owed on behalf of tenants who were indirectly or directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The $170 million Emergency Rental Assistance Program is a federal fund administered by the state Department of Finance and Administration. About $75 million remained as of Wednesday.
New Mexico Legal Aid attorney Thomas Prettyman in a video published by the organization suggested that renters in danger of losing their homes in the Ninth Judicial District try to talk to their landlords and work out a payment plan if they’re now facing an eviction in court.
Those who have lost their job or otherwise been affected financially by the pandemic should try to enroll themselves and their landlords in the rent assistance program, he recommended. Landlords have to agree to participate in the program to prevent a tenant from being evicted, and they often refuse rental assistance or ignore calls from program staff, Source New Mexico has reported previously.
New Mexico House endorses billion-dollar budget boost - Morgan Lee and Cedar Attanasio Associated Press
State House lawmakers in New Mexico endorsed a $1 billion increase in general fund spending Thursday to reinforce health care for the poor, teacher salaries, environmental regulation, policing and more.
Lead House budget negotiator and Democratic Rep. Patricia Lundstrom of Gallup said the proposal uses a surge in state government income to improve education, bolster public safety and spur economic growth in a state with the highest rate of childhood poverty in the American West.
"With the needs that we have in this state, people want the money out; they want that money working for them," Lundstrom said.
The Hose voted 56-13 in favor, with some Republicans in opposition, moving the bill to the Senate for consideration.
In all, the bill calls for state general fund spending of $8.47 billion for the fiscal year starting on July 1 — a nearly 14% increase from current annual spending of $7.45 billion.
It would leave room for $400 in tax cuts and maintains an unspent general fund balance of at least $2.6 billion — equal to 30% of annual spending obligations.
"We believe that this will lead to transformational outcomes for the people of our state while maintaining that robust reserve," Lundstrom said.
House Republicans emphasized their support for even greater companion tax cuts, forcing a failed vote on whether to fast-track a bill to eliminate taxes on Social Security income. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is backing that and other tax cuts during a 30-day legislative session that ends on Feb. 17.
Republicans also questioned a $50 million allocation to future investments in New Mexico-based venture capital projects that can be risky for investors but have the potential for above-average returns.
"That's not something we would do were we not floating on an ocean of money," said Republican Rep. Larry Scott of Hobbs.
House Democrats touted unprecedented investments in K-12 schools, including funding for teacher raises, under a $3.87 billion budget for public education.
"That is a historic investment in New Mexico children," said Democratic Rep. Candie Sweetser of Deming. "We are investing in those teachers and it really does matter."
More than $40 million is dedicated to culturally appropriate teaching materials that cater to Native American children and non-English speaking households, as lawmakers respond to court rulings that show a failure to provide adequate educational opportunities to low-income, minority and disabled students.
An increase of more than a quarter-billion dollars in spending is aimed at shoring up the state's Medicaid program and other benefits for poor people, including emergency food and temporary cash benefits.
New spending also would bolster permanent nursing staffs at hospitals and extend pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage to mothers for a year after giving birth, up from two months.
Salaries would increase by at least 7% for public employees in state government and public education, with a $15 hourly minimum. Even larger pay hikes are slated for state police.
Other provisions would create a new climate change bureau to oversee efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emission. The plan puts $9 million into grants to prevent violence, amid a record setting spate of homicides in Albuquerque.
Separately, the state Senate voted in favor of election-year initiatives to shore up voting procedures and to rein in climate change, sending two bills to the House for consideration.
The election bill, endorsed on a 39-0 vote, would usher in new efforts to improve the accuracy of voter registration rolls and new rules for election challengers and watchers, who monitor polling places and flag problems for precinct boards and judges. Training would be required for challengers and watchers, with a ban on video or audio recordings at poll sites.
Senators clashed over a Democrat-sponsored bill to reduce pollution from the transportation sector by establishing a low-carbon fuel standard, with Republicans warning of higher pump prices for gasoline. The bill won approval on a 25-6 vote, moving to the House.
The proposed clean-fuel standard — similar to systems in California and Oregon — gradually reduces the allowable amount of greenhouse gases linked to the production, blending and transportation of fuels such as gasoline, hydrogen, ethanol, diesel and biodiesel derived from used restaurant oil. Requirements don't apply to retail fuel stations.
Bill sponsor Mimi Stewart, the Senate's top-ranked Democrat, said the regulations would attract new industrial entrepreneurs, improve air quality and address pressing environmental threats like wildfires and flooding that accompany climate change.
The Environment Department would hire a half-dozen full time employees to roll out the clean fuel program over a two year period.
Small loan interest cap headed to House vote – Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A cap on interest rates for small loans is likely headed to a full vote by the New Mexico House of Representatives.
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday afternoon voted 7-5 along party lines to approve House Bill 132. The bill would cap interest rates on small loans in the state to 36%. Today, they’re as high as 175%.
Opposition to the legislation on Wednesday and this weekend largely centered around the same argument: Lowering interest rates on small loans will make it hard for low-income New Mexicans to access lines of credit.
A large portion of Wednesday’s nearly two-and-a-half hour-long hearing was devoted to a representative of credit unions in the state reassuring committee members that yes, New Mexicans would still have access to small loans if the bill became law.
“Credit unions have been here before,” said Juan Fernandez, president of the Credit Union Association of New Mexico. “We have come up with solutions and innovations when we were part of the New Deal to help consumers have access to credit during the Great Depression, and we’re going to be here again, when the Legislature passes this piece of legislation to cap interest rates at 36%.”
Many credit unions around the state already offer small loans at rates less than 30%, said Karen Myers, a consumer lawyer in Albuquerque and former head of the Consumer Protection Division at the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office.
Fernandez said people will still have access to loans smaller than $1,000 if the bill becomes law.
“I know the industry now says they can’t do loans at 36%. But they said the same thing, when the rate was established 175%,” Fernandez said. “I don’t think that this is going to extinguish them from existence. Mind you, their profits might be lower, but I still think that they’re going to be able to remain in New Mexico. Their loans are going to be fairer, and it’s going to be a fair deal for consumers.”
Fernandez said the vast majority of people who have taken out small loans would also qualify for loans from credit unions in the state.
Rep. James Townsend (R-Artesia) said the bill would prevent a certain business from using what they believe is their best practices.
“This game of pickin’ and choosin’ winners is not something the Legislature has a good track record in,” Townsend said.
If a majority of lawmakers in the House vote in favor of the bill, it will have to go through the entire committee process again in the Senate before heading for another floor vote. The session is scheduled to conclude on Feb. 17 at noon.
NM committee chair says she’ll post substitute bills before votes, following Source NM coverage – Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A New Mexico Senate committee chairwoman said Wednesday she would ensure all proposed legislation that members debate is posted online, a response to Source New Mexico coverage of a practice in the Roundhouse where lawmakers approve measures that haven’t been seen by the public.
The Senate Conservation Committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would allocate $2.2 million toward boosting wages for chile farmworkers and add more reporting requirements for farmers and contractors. The proposed rules followed an allegation of wage theft by a recipient of the taxpayer-funded wage supplement.
But no one outside the capital building in Santa Fe had a chance of seeing the bill before it was debated and approved. It was introduced last-minute as a substitute measure and distributed on paper copies to lawmakers — but it was never posted online.
Senate policy requires that bills become public record only when they’re read on the Senate floor. That didn’t happen until at least the next day in this case. The bill still needs to be approved by both chambers and signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Sen. Liz Stefanics (D-Cerrillos) chairs the committee. She initially did not respond to a request for comment on why the public never got to see the measure lawmakers approved. But on Wednesday night, she said she’d change the committee policy.
“We are taking notice,” she said in an email. “Committee substitute bills in my Conservation committee will be posted in the future.”
The change affects only Stefanics’ committee. Chris Nordstrum, a spokesperson for Senate Democrats, said he hasn’t heard yet of any effort to adopt a change across the Senate.
“I’m not aware of any formal, across-the-board changes in the works, but I do know that other chairs are making accommodations to improve the public’s ability to access to committee substitutions,” he said.
For example, Nordstrum said that Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Albuquerque) announced Wednesday that he would post online a committee substitute for Senate Bill 8, which proposes major voting rights’ reforms, before any action would have been taken on it.
A spokesperson for House Democrats did not respond to a request for comment Thursday about whether a similar change might occur in that chamber.
Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces), who sponsored the chile farmworker bill, said Thursday that he supported the Conservation Committee change and would like to see it adopted in every legislative committee.
“I think that’s a great policy,” he said.
Tribes: Settlement in opioids case will foster healing - By Felicia Fonseca and Ted Warren Associated Press
Cheryl Andrews-Maltais takes note of the heart-wrenching dates that remind Wampanoag families that they're still in the midst of the opioid drug crisis — birthdays of loved ones lost, anniversaries of their passing. Then she reaches out with a phone call to the grieving.
"And then you're on the other side of it, and you're bracing for another holiday or event you can't share because of this," she said.
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, which Andrews-Maltais leads in Massachusetts, was among hundreds of Native American tribes that sued drug manufacturers and distributors over the role they played in the epidemic. One study found Native Americans had the highest per capita rate of opioid overdose deaths of any population group in 2015.
Andrews-Maltais can think of 15 deaths among her tribe of about 500 alone.
Tribes settled with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and the three largest U.S. drug distribution companies this week for $590 million. Lawyers representing tribes hope to reach settlements with others in the pharmaceutical industry, including remaining manufacturers and pharmacies.
Last year, the four companies announced a $26 billion settlement with state and local governments to end all suits. An overwhelming majority of governments have signed on; the companies are to decide this month whether it constitutes enough acceptance to move ahead. The agreement with tribes is to be subtracted from those deals.
Each of the 574 federally recognized tribes are eligible for a share of the settlement money made public Tuesday. It's unclear how quickly the money would flow to tribes, but it won't be much and not until 95% of tribes and tribal organizations that sued agree to the settlement.
"Obviously it should have been more," Andrews-Maltais said. "The ongoing, cumulative effects are generational, and this money is not going to be generational."
A special court master and the judge who oversaw the case must develop a formula for allocating the money. Three enrolled tribal members who are well-known in Indian Country will be responsible for administering the funds: former U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs Secretary Kevin Washburn, former Indian Health Service acting director Mary Smith, and Kathy Hannan, chair of the National Museum of the American Indian's Board of Trustees.
Tribal leaders say they hope the funding will consider not only population but geographic diversity, access to health care, land mass and tribes' needs.
"One measuring stick that does apply, unfortunately to the vast majority of tribes, is that they are disproportionately impacted by opioids, alcohol and other chemical-generating problems that they had a very difficult history dealing with," said Geoffrey Strommer, whose firm represented some tribes in the settlement.
A 236-page court document filed in the case laid out staggering statistics for tribes related to drug-related crimes and deaths, and noted a long history — including the federal government's attempts to assimilate Native Americans into white society — that has contributed to generations of trauma. Most tribes have struggled financially to address the opioid crisis through law enforcement, courts, social services and health care.
Tribal police agencies said in the court filing that they've had to train more officers on how to deal with prescription and synthetic drugs, and arm them with tools to treat overdoses.
Tribes have turned to wellness or healing centers to treat those with opioid addictions, their families and the larger community. In Sequim, Washington, the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe is building a holistic health center in the shadow of the Olympic Mountains and near the headwaters of the Duwamish River.
It will serve up to 300 people per day, both tribal and non-tribal members struggling with addiction. Shuttle services will be available for anyone who needs a ride and child care. The plans call for a water feature in the front that will reinforce a traditional story about the ability to change the path of a river by moving one rock.
The tribe also has funded a full-time social services worker who will be embedded in the police department to address concerns in the larger community about patients and any drug-related crimes.
"Sometimes people, optically, think that these kinds of treatment centers become a magnet to drug dealers and the underbelly of that industry," said Jamestown S'Klallam Chairman W. Ron Allen. "And that's not what it is. It's a reverse of that. They're designed to be highly secure, highly safe, highly monitored and totally focused on helping those individuals become healthy."
Joshua Carver, who received services from the tribe to overcome a heroin addiction, helped install some of the center's artwork as part of his tribal construction job.
His mother, Shawna Priest, saw it as an evolution from taking oxycodone for back issues, moving on to heroin, being hospitalized on the brink of an overdose and detoxing at home for six months before recovering four years ago.
Her daughter also has struggled with addiction, including a relapse after losing a newborn, but has recovered and is working at a tribal casino. Priest herself was terrified to take medication after having ankle surgery last April, questioning whether it would cause her to become addicted. She tells her family's story to instill hope in others.
"You can get through this. You can be successful," she said. "It's not the end of the world."
Leonard Forsman, chairman of the neighboring Suquamish Tribe, said he is glad major drug manufacturers and distributors are being held responsible for the opioid epidemic, though none acknowledged wrongdoing in the settlement. The tribe plans to use the money to support cultural resurgence, which he said "has been the most effective pathway for preventing addiction and promoting recovery."
The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma said it will use the funding to expand mental health treatment and related services.
Kristopher Peters, a former police officer for the Squaxin Island Tribe in Washington state, said he has seen good people lose their jobs, destroy their families, hurt others and die because of opioid addictions. Incarceration is not the answer, and many times, treatment doesn't work the first time.
"We're not expecting the awarded funds to solve our issues or buy our way out of this epidemic," said Peters, now the tribe's chairman. "That in itself is not going to heal anyone."
Cultural gatherings like the canoe journey shared among tribes at Puget Sound and potlatches — ceremonial feasts that involve gift giving — are part of the equation, he said.
"I've seen people who are absolute addicts struggling with crime on that canoe journey, and they are totally different people," he said. "Connecting with their traditional ways. It's healing."
Storm leaving New Mexico but leaving bitter cold, icy roads -Associated Press
A major storm was leaving New Mexico on Thursday but leaving bitterly cold temperatures and roads slick from ice and packed with snow, prompting closures of schools in several cities and nonessential government services in Albuquerque.
The National Weather Service office in Albuquerque canceled winter storm warnings as conditions improved but urged drivers to be cautious as subfreezing temperatures across most of the state made travel hazardous.
State police said the weather and road conditions appeared to be contributing factors in a deadly pileup along Interstate 40 near Santa Rosa on Wednesday that involved 13 semi-trucks and three passenger vehicles. One woman was killed and five other people were taken to a hospital with unknown injuries.
Public schools were closed Thursday in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Rio Rancho due to icy road conditions and Las Cruces schools switched to remote learning. Albuquerque closed government offices, senior centers, libraries, the ABQBioPark and two museums.
In Las Cruces, the city's airport and a drive-up COVID-19 testing site at a sports stadium were closed Thursday. COVID-19 testing sites at the fairgrounds in Albuquerque and in Santa Fe also were closed, but one in Hobbs in southeastern New Mexico remained open.
Gradual warming was expected Friday into early next week, the weather service said.
As winter storm moves across US, ice becomes bigger concern - By Kathleen Foody and Jill Bleed Associated Press
About 350,000 homes and businesses lost power across the U.S. on Thursday as freezing rain and snow weighed down tree limbs and encrusted power lines, part of a winter storm that caused a deadly tornado in Alabama, dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest and brought rare measurable snowfall and hundreds of power outages to parts of Texas.
Storm conditions also caused headaches for travelers across the country as airlines canceled more than 9,000 flights scheduled for Thursday or Friday in the U.S.
The highest totals of power outages blamed on icy or downed power lines were concentrated in Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Ohio, but the path of the storm stretched further from the central U.S. into the South and Northeast on Thursday.
Heavy snow was expected from the southern Rockies to northern New England, while forecasters said heavy ice buildup was likely from Pennsylvania to New England through Friday.
Parts of Ohio, New York and northern New England were expected to see heavy snowfall as the storm moves to the east with 12 to 18 inches of snow possible in some places through Friday, Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, said early Thursday.
However, ice accumulations were expected to be the primary hazard from central and eastern Pennsylvania through the Catskill Mountains of New York to New England, NWS meteorologist Rich Otto said Thursday evening.
Along the warmer side of the storm, strong thunderstorms capable of damaging wind gusts and tornadoes were possible Thursday in parts of Mississippi and Alabama, the Storm Prediction Center said.
In western Alabama, Hale County Emergency Management Director Russell Weeden told WBRC-TV a tornado that hit a rural area Thursday afternoon killed one person, a female he found under rubble, and critically injured three others. A home was heavily damaged, he said.
Tornadoes in the winter are unusual but possible, and scientists have said the atmospheric conditions needed to cause a tornado have intensified as the planet warms.
Heavy snow the storm brought to Midwestern states isn't unusual, except the bigger-than-normal path of intense snow in some places, said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini. With a warmer climate, people are forgetting what a Midwestern winter had long been like, he said.
"The only amazing winters I've been able to experience is through my parents' photographs of the 1970s," Gensini, who is 35, said. "This (storm) is par for the course, not only for the past, but winters current."
More than 20 inches (51 centimeters) of snow was reported in the southern Rockies, while more than a foot of snow fell in areas of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
The flight-tracking service FlightAware.com showed more than 9,000 flights in the U.S. scheduled for Thursday or Friday had been canceled, on top of more than 2,000 cancellations Wednesday as the storm began.
"Unfortunately, we are looking at enough ice accumulations that we will be looking at significant travel impacts," Orrison said.
At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, an American Airlines hub, an estimated 700 customers stayed Wednesday night in its terminals, according to an airport statement. Airport personnel provided pillows, blankets, diapers and infant formula to the marooned travelers. Airport officials said in the same statement that on Thursday night "we are ready to provide assistance in anticipation of customers who may need to stay in the terminals."
The Ohio Valley was especially affected Thursday, with 211 flight cancellations at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Thursday. An airport spokeswoman told the Cincinnati Enquirer that all flights were canceled Thursday except for Delta Air Lines and American Airlines flights before noon.
Nearly all Thursday afternoon and evening flights were canceled at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, and Friday flights could be as well, spokeswoman Natalie Chaudoin told the Louisville Courier-Journal. UPS suspended some operations Thursday at its Worldport hub at the airport, a rare move.
Almost 300,000 homes and businesses were still without power as night fell Thursday, most of them in Tennessee and Ohio, according to the website poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. As night fell Thursday, almost 150,000 Tennessee customers were without power, including about 135,000 in the Memphis area alone — or one-third of the customers of Memphis Light, Gas & Water.
Power restoration could take days, said Gale Carson, the utility's spokeswoman. "It's not going to be a quick process," she said.
Six people were taken to a hospital after a 16-vehicle crash on a Memphis highway. Two were in critical condition when taken to an emergency room after the crash on Austin Peay Highway, the Memphis Fire Department said on Twitter. Four others suffered non-critical injuries.
Trees sagged under the weight of ice in Memphis, resulting in fallen tree limbs and branches. Parked cars had a layer of ice on them and authorities in several communities around the city warned of some cars sliding off slick roadways.
Meantime, almost 70,000 were without power in Ohio, with large percentages of the population in southeastern Ohio in the dark.
In Texas, the return of subfreezing weather brought heightened anxiety nearly a year after February 2021's catastrophic freeze that buckled the state's power grid for days, leading to hundreds of deaths in one of the worst blackouts in U.S. history.
Facing a new test of Texas' grid, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said it was holding up and on track to have more than enough power to get through the storm. Texas had about 70,000 outages by Thursday morning, nowhere close to the 4 million outages reported in 2021. About half had their power restored by evening.
Abbott and local officials said Thursday's outages were due to high winds or icy and downed transmission lines, not grid failures.
In Dallas, where snow rarely accumulates, the overnight mix of snow and freezing rain had hardened Thursday afternoon into an icy slick that made roads perilous.
South Bend, Indiana, reported a record snowfall for the date on Wednesday with 11.2 inches, eclipsing the previous record of 8 inches set on the date in 1908, said Hannah Carpenter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's office in Syracuse, Indiana.
Once the storm pushes through, she said temperatures will see a big drop, with Friday's highs mostly in the upper teens followed by lows in the single digits in northern Indiana, along with bone-chilling wind chills.
"It's definitely not going to be melting real quick here," Carpenter said Thursday morning.
The frigid temperatures settled into areas after the snowy weather, with Kansas residents awakening to dangerous wind chills of around 15 below zero. In New Mexico, schools and nonessential government services were closed in some areas Thursday because of icy and snow-packed roads.
The disruptive storm began Tuesday and moved across the central U.S. on Wednesday's Groundhog Day, the same day the famed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. The storm came on the heels of a nor'easter last weekend that brought blizzard conditions to many parts of the East Coast.
