First Major US Winter Storm of Year Hammers Mid-Atlantic States

 A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
TT

First Major US Winter Storm of Year Hammers Mid-Atlantic States

 A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)

The first major winter storm of the new year barreled into the US mid-Atlantic states on Monday, closing down federal offices and public schools in Washington, DC, after dumping a foot of snow in parts of the Ohio Valley and Central Plains.

More than five inches (12.7 cm) had fallen in the country’s capital by midday on Monday, according to the US National Weather Service, with up to 12 inches in some surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia. The snow was forecast to continue before the system pushes out to sea on Monday evening.

Severe travel disruptions were expected across the storm's path, and officials urged drivers to stay off the roads if possible. Governors in several states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland, have declared states of emergency.

In the wake of the storm, dangerously frigid Arctic air was filling the void, bringing freezing rain and icy conditions to a swath of the country stretching from Illinois to the Atlantic coast. The unusually cold temperatures are expected to linger for the rest of the week.

The Central Plains, where the storm dumped heavy snow over the weekend, were already in a deep freeze. Parts of Kansas experienced bitter cold wind chills, with values from 5 to almost 25 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (minus 15 to 32 degrees Celsius) overnight. The cold air will persist, with daytime highs only in the mid teens to lower 20s.

The airport in Kansas City recorded 11 inches (28 cm) of snowfall, the highest for any storm in more than 30 years, the National Weather Service said. The Missouri State Police said it had responded on Sunday to more than 1,000 stranded motorists and 356 crashes, including one fatality.

In Washington, even as the storm struck, Congress met to formally certify Republican Donald Trump's election as president. But federal offices in the nation's capital were closed.

In the city's Meridian Hill Park, hundreds gathered for a massive snowball battle, organized by the so-called Washington DC Snowball Fight Association. The combatants - many wearing ski goggles for protection - fired volleys of frozen projectiles, as one dog tried to catch the ammunition in its mouth.

"I did not come here to make friends!" Jack Pitsor, who lives across the street from the park, shouted with a laugh before launching a snowball toward enemy lines.

School districts in numerous states shut down on Monday due to the storm, including public schools in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Washington and Philadelphia.

The storm also left more than 330,000 homes and businesses in the central and southern US without power on Monday, data from PowerOutage.us showed.

As of 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT), nearly 1,900 flights within, into and out of the United States had been canceled, according to the FlightAware.com tracking service. Amtrak canceled dozens of trains on the busy Northeast Corridor line between Boston and Washington.

The three airports serving the D.C. area - Reagan National, Baltimore/Washington International and Dulles - were all open, with crews working to clear airfields of snow, but were seeing many flights delayed or canceled.

Virginia State Police responded to 300 car crashes between midnight and 11 a.m., while the Maryland State Police received 123 crash reports between 1 a.m. and 11 a.m., spokespeople for the two agencies said.



Facing Egg Shortage, Americans Bring Chickens Home to Roost

Hens for sale roam in their cage at Wabash Feed & Garden store in Houston, Texas, on February 10, 2025. AFP
Hens for sale roam in their cage at Wabash Feed & Garden store in Houston, Texas, on February 10, 2025. AFP
TT

Facing Egg Shortage, Americans Bring Chickens Home to Roost

Hens for sale roam in their cage at Wabash Feed & Garden store in Houston, Texas, on February 10, 2025. AFP
Hens for sale roam in their cage at Wabash Feed & Garden store in Houston, Texas, on February 10, 2025. AFP

A Houston poultry supply company is selling chickens like there is no tomorrow, as sky-high prices for eggs prompt some Americans to produce their own at home.

A recent US outbreak of bird flu since early 2024 is exacting a heavy toll on poultry farms. More than 21 million egg-laying hens have been "depopulated" this year so far, after 13.2 million were culled in December, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Eggs, as a result, are a precious commodity these days.

John Berry, who manages a livestock company in Houston, reported a dramatic increase in demand for chickens as consumers grapple with the egg shortage.

"Our sales for poultry have doubled or maybe potentially tripled. I mean we're selling 100 chickens a week or more," Berry told AFP.

In times of egg abundance it would take two or three weeks to sell that many birds, he said.

A dozen premium eggs can now cost an eye-popping $10 in some US supermarkets, with even lower-grade ones now drawing twice their usual price of what is normally between two and three dollars.

The popular grocery store chain Trader Joe's is limiting purchases to one dozen eggs of any kind per household per day, and Costco is also limiting purchases.

Waffle House restaurants have slapped a 50-cent surcharge on each egg in a dish to compensate for higher costs.

Last week in Seattle, a restaurant was robbed of 500 eggs from its storeroom in the middle of the night.

- ' I have a large family' -

Berry said most of his chicken buyers are new to the world of egg production.

Such is the case of Arturo Becerra, who recently bought 10 hens for $400, with another $20 for a month's worth of feed.

On Monday, he bought five more hens, and plans to get another 10, "because I have a large family." His hens are still young and need a few more weeks to start laying eggs.

Some cities and towns in Texas allow people to raise chickens at home if they follow certain health norms.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the risk to the general public from avian flu remains "low," but has released safety guidelines for owners of backyard bird flocks.

The CDC also says that "people with job-related or recreational exposures to birds or other H5 virus-infected animals, are at greater risk of infection."

That has not appeared to deter Becerra.

"Now I have some place to put them, and besides, eggs are very expensive," said Becerra, a 57-year-old man who was born in Mexico. "I think it will be cheaper to buy hens and raise them."

Billy Underhill, the 62-year-old owner of a construction company and longtime chicken raiser, has bought two more of the clucking creatures.

"I just heard someone yesterday say that eggs were, like, 10 dollars a dozen," he said.

"I was already planning on buying a couple more chickens. I buy a couple every couple months because some of them die. Eventually they die and they stop laying so I'm going to keep the flow of eggs going in my family," he said.

Berry said there are no chickens to replace the millions that had to be killed because of avian influenza.

"You have to have had anticipated this and raised a thousand extra chickens or a million extra chickens," said Berry.

In the United States, the disease is affecting not just poultry farms but also dairy cows.

There have been 68 cases among people since early last year, with one of them fatal. Most of them were among people coming into contact with infected animals, according to the CDC.

The man who died was infected "after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds," health authorities said.

Berry said there is a generation of chickens growing and waiting to replace the ones who were destroyed. But it will take time, and as eggs store well, he recommends that people stock up.

"It'll be a couple of months, I would guess at the soonest. Seems like it's two or three months or more before things kind of get right."