US outages leave over 800,000 people without power on morning of Christmas Eve following Winter storms

Over 800,000 people across the U.S. were without power on the morning of Christmas Eve following a brutal winter storm that impacted nearly the entire country over the past week, according to a 5:30 a.m. report from PowerOutage.

Though the power outages spread out across the country and affected nine regions, approximately 417,430 of the outages were recorded in the New England area.

The website showed 248,482 of those outages were from Maine alone, which is over 25% of the 849,004 electric customers tracked in the state.

The next region suffering widespread outages was the Mid-Atlantic with approximately 225,952.

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As officials anticipated sub-zero temperatures to hit many areas in America this weekend, power outages were considered to be life-threatening. 

The biggest concern stemming from the loss of power is many homes’ inability to provide warmth without it.

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On a positive note, the number of homes without power in the southern states drastically decreased into Saturday. Across 12 states, approximately 116,722 people were without power at 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

Georgia, who alone reported over 100,000 people without power on Friday, saw the biggest improvement with only around 11,000 people in the state still waiting on electricity.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, ended rolling blackouts Friday afternoon, but continued urging homeowners and businesses to conserve power.

The winter storm will move out of the northeastern U.S. on Christmas Eve and into Canada, but heavy snowfall and lingering winds producing dangerously cold wind chills will be a serious threat to anyone without power, according to FOX Weather.

Those strong, lingering winds could contribute to additional power outages in the Northeast and across the Great Lakes.