Winter Vortex leaves USA battling Snow, Rain, Wind Chills & Power Outages

A series of intense storms have been battering the US this week, beginning on Wednesday with snow pounding the Rockies before spiraling into an intense blizzard.

The extreme weather vortex has placed more than 100 million people under winter weather alerts, caused whiteouts, freezing temperatures, and damaged power lines.

The US Midwest and East were hit by a severe winter storm on Friday, with conditions causing car crashes and the deaths of multiple individuals. To date, as many as 12 deaths have been reported.

Three separate car crashes were reported in Kansas on Wednesday evening, all believed to have been caused by poor road conditions, with one fatality confirmed to have been caused by the extreme weather.

Three deaths in Kentucky were also reported with two of those deaths being attributed to car accidents caused by poor weather, and the other believed to be a housing insecure person in Louisville who was found outside with no obvious signs of trauma.

A person in Kansas City, Missouri, lost control of their minivan on an icy street and plunged into Brush Creek, landing their car upside down and partially submerged in the icy stream. That person later died at the hospital.

Some 1.3 million customers were left without power after severe winds battered power lines. The states of Maine, North Carolina, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania were hit the hardest by power outages.

Whiteout conditions, frigid temperatures, and the waves are like what you would see during a hurricane, said New York resident Vrian Trzeciak, who has a home in Hamburg, New York.

The next phase, he warned, is going to be a precipitous drop in temperature, going down to the low teens, single digits over the weekend.

Across the United States about 5,100 domestic and international flights were canceled and another 8,400 were delayed on Friday, making holiday travel plans impossible for some.

Airports in Cleveland, Buffalo and Chicago reported on Friday morning that more than half of their departing flights were canceled.

Alaska Airlines and Allegiant Air were forced to cancel more than a third of their flights on Friday and more than 400 Southwest Airlines flights were delayed.

Some major US airlines including American, Delta, and United said they were waiving fees to change flights due to the severe weather.

Sputnik / ABC Flash Point Weather Engineering USA News 2022.