00:00Let's turn to the weather.
00:01Nearly half of the United States is experiencing dangerous winter conditions more than...
00:05800,000 homes and business are without power.
00:08But what else of Accu...
00:10The weather is in Greenville, South Carolina, and he joins us now for more.
00:13Bill, welcome to the program.
00:14The worst of the snow behind...
00:15How dangerous is the weather going to be for the next several days?
00:19Yeah, good morning.
00:20It is the temperatures, the coldest air so far this winter on the backside of this storm.
00:25That's the biggest safety concern over the next few days for the hundreds of thousands of people...
00:30across the country who are without power and without heat here in Greenville, South Carolina.
00:35A lot of people waking up to this, about an inch of sleet and ice all over the place.
00:40On the sidewalks and the streets, and then we had freezing rain that fell on top of it.
00:43So you can imagine, especially...
00:45for people who live down hills like this one all across the South and Southeast, they may be...
00:50stuck at home for several days.
00:52And when we're talking about the widespread impact...
00:55of this winter storm, it's really staggering the economic effect it's having.
01:00More than 200 million people impacted by this storm across more than two...
01:05dozen states and AccuWeather experts estimate that the preliminary total damage and economic...
01:10loss for this winter storm, $105 billion to $150 billion.
01:15I mean, that is a lot of money we're talking about here with the travel shutdown...
01:20we were in Atlanta earlier for the storm, where one of the busiest areas...
01:25airports in the world had thousands of flight cancellations...
01:28and then you think about all of the business, all of the...
01:30commerce, all of the rail disruptions, and especially along the ice storm section.
01:35The southern side of the storm, where there are extended power outages...
01:38businesses could be shut down...
01:40for days.
01:41And if they don't have emergency generators, or if those generators fail or run out a few...
01:45school, then we're talking about goods, groceries, pharmaceuticals that go bad, that can't be...
01:50refrigerated.
01:51So very impactful storm.
01:52And just to put this in a big picture context...
01:55you other experts say this winter storm is the most economic impact.
02:00U.S. weather disaster since last January.
02:03That's when we had the California water.
02:05It's a very strong increase.
02:07We can do all these wildfires causing an estimated $250 billion to $275 billion.
02:10in total damage and economic loss, according to AccuWeather.
02:13So it's been about a full-
02:15year since we have seen a large economic U.S. weather impact like this.
02:20Remember, we did not have any hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. this past season.
02:25Wow, that's some context.
02:26It's also a messy commute bill here up in New York when it comes to what's going on.
02:30And also some of the other trains right into, you know, the main metropolitan area.
02:35What does the rest of the week look like, given we're going to get cold temperatures?
02:40Absolutely.
02:41It's going to be tough.
02:42The cleanup, the plowing, all of that is really-
02:45load because of the really cold Arctic air that is surging in on the back end of this.
02:50The Midwest, I mean, AccuWeather is forecasting real field temperatures 30 to-
02:5560 degrees below zero at times this week.
02:59So-
03:00Big safety concerns, even, you know, for people who do have power and heat, who are outdoor
03:04workers.
03:05They are dealing with trying to clean up these icy streets and the snow.
03:08But again, that-
03:10That cold is going to slow down the cleanup process here, and that's why we're saying
03:13that economic impact, it is going to-
03:15And of course, in the hardest areas, weeks or longer.
03:19Hey, Bill, good to see you.
03:20Stay warm, sir.
03:21Thanks for catching up with us.
03:22Bill Waddow there of AccuWeather.
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