Number of Dead Rises to 9, Including Elementary School Teacher, in Winter Storm That Left 800K Without Power

As temperatures stay dangerously low across parts of the U.S., states are still dealing with the fallout from this weekend’s winter storm — including widespread outages, travel disruptions, and a rising death toll.

Late last week and into the weekend, Winter Storm Fern swept across large portions of the country, leaving nine people dead in five states — Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Texas — NBC News reported.

In New York City, five people were found dead on Saturday, Jan. 24. Officials are still investigating whether winter conditions played a role.

“It is still too early to say what the cause of death was for any of the five of them,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during a news conference on Sunday, Jan. 25, according to NBC. “And it seems at this moment that we do not think any of them were homeless.”

“We mourn the loss of any and every New Yorker,” he added, “and we are keeping those five New Yorkers in our thoughts, as well as their friends and their family.”

Weather advisories have stretched from the Central and Southern Plains to the Northeast. The New York Times reported that roughly 830,000 homes and businesses lost power after ice brought down power lines.

The storm also forced widespread closures and delays. Numerous schools were shut on Monday, Jan. 26, and some major-city transit systems struggled to fully restart service, according to the Times.

Air travel took a major hit as well. NBC reported that 12,000 flights were canceled on Sunday, with more than 3,500 additional cancellations expected on Monday.

Even as conditions ease in some areas, the Northeast is expected to keep seeing heavy snow through Monday night, according to the National Weather Service.

“Extremely cold air behind the storm will prolong dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts,” the agency said. “Sub-zero low temperatures are expected nearly every morning from the Northern Plains through the Ohio Valley and into the Northeast.”

A separate system is expected to produce lake-effect snow in the Great Lakes region through Tuesday, Jan. 27.

In Kansas, an elementary school is mourning a teacher identified as 28-year-old Rebecca Rauber, who was found dead on Sunday. Authorities said she went missing after leaving a bar in Emporia, Kan., late Friday night, according to a statement from the Emporia Police Department.

Officials said her body was discovered two days later in a nearby wooded area, covered in snow, and she may have died from hypothermia.