Millions Hunker Down as Storm Hits Eastern US

A snow plow clears Main St. in Greenville, South Carolina. AFP
A snow plow clears Main St. in Greenville, South Carolina. AFP
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Millions Hunker Down as Storm Hits Eastern US

A snow plow clears Main St. in Greenville, South Carolina. AFP
A snow plow clears Main St. in Greenville, South Carolina. AFP

Millions of Americans hunkered down as a major winter storm hit the eastern United States with heavy snow and ice knocking power out for an estimated 145,000 customers as of Sunday evening.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the storm was bringing a miserable combination of heavy snows, freezing rain and high winds, impacting the southeast and coastal mid-Atlantic before moving up to New England and southern Canada, AFP reported.

Some areas along the Appalachian mountain range could see as much as one inch of snow per hour through Monday, while icy conditions could continue to develop through Tuesday, the NWS said.

In all, more than 80 million people fell under the winter weather alerts, US media reported.

By mid-day Sunday, about 235,000 customers had lost power in the southeast, including more than 150,000 in the Carolinas, according to the website PowerOutage.US, though it appeared some were coming back online by the evening.

The storm spawned damaging tornadoes in Florida and flooding in parts of the coast, while in the Carolinas and up through the Appalachians icy conditions and blustery winds raised concerns.

Transportation was seriously disrupted, with thousands of flights canceled, and a portion of busy interstate highway I-95 closed in North Carolina.

Around 3,000 flights within, into or out of the United States were canceled by Sunday evening, according to the FlightAware website, and a further 4,200 were delayed.

Drivers were warned of hazardous road conditions and major travel headaches from Arkansas in the South all the way up to the Canadian border state of Maine.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp had declared a state of emergency on Friday, and snowplows were at work before noon to clear the roads.

Virginia and North Carolina have also declared states of emergency.

Virginia State Police said on Twitter a "multi-vehicle backup," along with minor crashes, had stopped up traffic on a major interstate in the southern part of the state.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on Twitter that up to a foot of snow had fallen in some areas by midday, and that "significant icing is causing trouble in the Central part of the state" as he reminded people to stay inside and avoid travel if possible.

Also in North Carolina, students were shaken up after the storm caused the roof of a college residence hall to collapse, according to a local ABC news station, though no one was hurt.

"Very scary," Brevard College sophomore Melody Ferguson told the station. "I’m still shaking to this moment."

The NWS even reported some snow flurries in Pensacola, Florida, while usually mild Atlanta, Georgia also saw snow.

The storm is expected to cause some coastal flooding, and the NWS warned that winds could near hurricane force on the Atlantic coast.

The northeastern United States already experienced snow chaos earlier this month. When a storm blanketed the Northeast, hundreds of motorists were stuck for more than 24 hours on a major highway linking to the capital Washington.



No Way to Restart Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Present, IAEA Chief Says

A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2023. (Reuters)
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No Way to Restart Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Present, IAEA Chief Says

A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2023. (Reuters)

Conditions for restarting Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant do not exist at present due to a lack of water for cooling and the absence of a stable power supply, the head of the UN's nuclear safety watchdog said on Tuesday.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv that water would have to be pumped from the Dnipro River for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is currently shut down, to restart.

The facility, in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, was occupied by Russia in March 2022, shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Grossi said the Russians had "never hidden the fact" that they want to restart the plant, but they would not be able to do so soon.

"We are not in a situation of imminent restart of the plant. Far from that, it would take quite some time before that can be done," Grossi said.

The IAEA chief added that the plant's machinery, which has not been operating for three years, would have to be thoroughly inspected before any restart.

Ukraine has said that an attempt by Russian technicians to restart the plant would be dangerous because they are not certified to operate the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Grossi said Russian nuclear staff were capable of conducting a restart, and that the issue of certification was a political rather than technical one.

Ukraine has also protested at the IAEA's monitoring mission to the plant accessing it via Russian-occupied territory.

Grossi said this was to protect the safety of his staff, and that at present he does not have the necessary guarantees from the Russian side to safely transit IAEA staff through the frontlines to Ukraine-controlled territory, as had been done several times before.