Nearly 400,000 Without Power as Storms Pummel Both Coasts

Nearly 400,000 people in the U.S. were still without power across the country Wednesday morning as wild winter weather pummeled both coasts.

According to PowerOutage.us, which collects utility data on outages, more than 196,000 people on the East Coast were facing outages, while nearly 188,000 people in California didn’t have power. Both coasts faced historic deluges—rain in the West, snow in the East.

In California, the state’s 11th atmospheric river of the season brought widespread chaos on Tuesday, as wild winds and rains caused windows to blow out and rivers to overflow. Evacuation orders were issued for 27,000 people living in areas that had been previously scarred by wildfires, which increases the risk of landslides.

California governor Gavin Newsom declared three additional counties under a state of emergency Tuesday evening; 40 of California’s 58 counties were already under states of emergency thanks to the damage done from previous storms during this raucous winter season. Another atmospheric river is due early next week, state climatologists said at a press briefing on Monday, likely impacting a huge area from San Francisco to San Diego.

In New England and parts of upstate New York, a nor’easter dumped up to 3 feet (91 centimeters) of snow in some areas, causing widespread power outages, school cancellations, and dangerous driving conditions.

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