A devastating winter storm is hitting the entire eastern half of the country today, with 180 million people at risk from New Mexico to Maine and days of record cold temperatures to follow. With flakes starting to fly, FEMA is in chaos and the president is focused on memes and mocking environmentalists. After the storm, tens of millions of Americans will face soaring heating bills and less help available.
Read the latest on the winter storm:
WINTER STORM FERN
- 180 Million Americans At Risk: More than 180 million people are on alert for a massive weekend storm that stretches from New Mexico to Maine, and is expected to paralyze the south with dangerous ice and snow. As of Saturday morning thousands of flights have been cancelled and at least 18 states have declared states of emergency.
- Days of Record Cold: A record cold wave will follow the snow and ice, leaving huge swathes of the country below freezing for many days and exposing tens of millions of Americans to potentially life-threatening conditions.
- Millions Could Be Left In The Cold And Dark: Energy companies are warning customers across the south to prepare for “multi-day outages” in the freezing cold and meteorologists are comparing this storm to the Texas storm in 2021 that killed more than 200 people after power outages — except this storm is going to hit everywhere from Texas, up the Southeast and into New England.
TRIAL BY ICE: TRUMP GUTTED FEMA AND THE ADMINISTRATION IS MORE INTERESTED IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAN PREPAREDNESS
- Sounding The Alarm: This winter storm is the first major multi-state rapid activation for FEMA since Trump started taking the agency apart last year and now alarm bells are ringing that the disaster agency may not be ready for this weekend’s storm. Former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell issued a stark warning that staff cuts and chaos will impede the ability to help communities in the wake of the winter storm.
- FEMA In Chaos: FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery is now led by Gregg Phillips, a grifter election denier with no experience managing emergencies. Hundreds of FEMA staff have been reassigned to ICE. Just a week ago the agency announced drastic cuts to the Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery (CORE), the group of workers who are dispatched across the country to assist after disasters. With the storm barreling in on Thursday, DHS frantically tried to reverse those cuts, firing and un-firing a group of recovery workers on the same day.
- Don’t Say “Ice” – DHS Focused On Memes, Not Your Safety: DHS has warned FEMA not to use the word “ice” in communications about this ice storm. “Officials told staff they worry that certain phrasing — like ‘“watch out for ice’ — could be misinterpreted or quickly turned into internet fodder” or memes that would be embarrassing for the administration. A FEMA official told CNN, “If we can’t use clear language to help prepare Americans, then people may be left vulnerable and could suffer.”
- Conspiracy Theorist In Chief: The White House promises a “whole of government” response to the storm threatening over half the country, but the president spent more time yesterday attacking “environmental insurrectionists” and mocking the concept of climate change on Truth Social than he did urging Americans to prepare for dangerous weather.
AFTER THE STORM: TENS OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS FACE DAYS OF BITTER COLD, SOARING HEATING COSTS, AND NO HELP ON THE HORIZON
- Broken Promises: Heating Bills Are Soaring. Tens of millions of Americans will face massive heating bills to stay safe and warm during the winter storm and the ensuing cold snap. Trump promised Americans that he would cut their energy bills in half during his first year in office, but the opposite has happened. Consumers who are already stretched thin from spiking electric bills, soaring grocery prices, and paying for Trump’s tariffs now face the prospect of an almost 10 percent increase in home heating costs from last year. The average US household will spend nearly $1,000 to heat its home this winter, and millions of Americans face the prospect of utility shutoffs, keeping their homes at unsafe temperatures, or going without other necessities just to keep the lights on.
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- Natural gas prices soared more than 60% ahead of Winter Storm Fern, and whether they heat their homes with gas or electricity, consumers can expect their energy bills to jump in the next billing cycle and even months down the road.
- Left In The Cold: The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is a lifeline for vulnerable seniors and others who need help keeping their homes heated – and Trump wants to eliminate it. Trump and DOGE fired the entire LIHEAP program staff at HHS and the White House wants to kill the program all together. Congress eventually allocated $4 billion for LIHEAP this year, but that’s down from $6.1 billion two years ago and states are now on their own to administer the program without federal assistance or guidance.