Worries deepen in US South after days of grappling with snow, ice and widespread outages

Source: AP

By SOPHIE BATES, JEFF MARTIN and RUSS BYNUM
Updated 5:35 PM CST, January 28, 2026
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Conditions were growing more dire in parts of the South still reeling from subfreezing temperatures and widespread power outages as vehicles got stranded for hours on major highways and officials warned Wednesday that people stuck at home were running out of food, medicine and other essentials.

Mississippi dispatched 135 snowplows and National Guard troops equipped with wreckers to sections of Interstates 55 and 22 gridlocked by vehicles abandoned in the state’s ice-stricken northern region. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power as cold daytime temperatures sunk below freezing overnight in a region unaccustomed and ill-equipped for such weather.

Cars and semitrucks trying to navigate the frozen highways single-file began getting stuck Tuesday. No injuries were reported, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said. But one driver told The Associated Press she feared she might freeze to death on I-22 when her car sat idle for more than 14 hours.

“I just thought that we were going to die there,” said Samantha Lewis, 78, who got stuck on a road trip with a friend. “There was nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to save us.”



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/frigid-temperatures-arctic-air-us-south-tennessee-61cd5b29f15322cc4dcae374d7b78c7e