With fatal tornadoes in the southeast and strong winds and snow on the west coast, severe weather caused thousands of flights nationwide to be delayed and cancelled on Saturday disrupting holiday travel. According to FlightAware which is a tracking website, more than 200 flights were canceled and over 7,000 were delayed in the United States on Saturday.
FlightAware estimates that almost one third of the flights at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport experienced delays while over half of the planes from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston experienced delays
According to the National Weather Service and local law enforcement, at least ten tornadoes made landfall in the southeastern U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi on Saturday killing one person close to Houston.
“Those numbers will probably go up,” said Aaron Gleason , a forecaster with the Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service. About 45 miles south of Houston in Brazoria County, Texas, the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office reported one death and four injuries on Saturday.
Numerous homes and schools were either completely destroyed or seriously damaged according to officials. Social media posts display pictures of broken power poles, trees and home wreckage all across yards and streets. Forecasters said heavy rainfall is likely from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon and severe winds with gusts of up to 150 mph in the high elevations of the Tahoe Basin in California and 50 mph at lower elevations slam the area this weekend.
Forecasters predict up to three feet of snow in Lake Tahoe and four to six inches of rain before New Year’s Eve. “Damaging winds could blow down trees and power lines,” the Weather Service warned. “Widespread power outages are possible.”
In an email to CBS News, Jason Smith, deputy chief of staff for Montgomery County just north of Houston said that severe weather that brought down trees and powerlines destroyed between 50 and 100 homes.
