For millions in the South, an impending storm could become unforgettable.
“I can’t stop watching the forecasts,” said Shemekia Stringer, speaking by phone Thursday afternoon as she moved through near-empty aisles at a Walmart in Southaven, Mississippi, just outside of Memphis, Tennessee.
“I’m trying to make sure we’re fully prepared. In my area, the map just updated — we turned purple. We’re at the extreme ice level where we live.”
Stringer remembers the last time a major ice storm hit Mississippi in 1994. She was just 7 years old.
The storm knocked out power to her family’s home, and more than 2 million households across the South, for almost a month. For those weeks, she said, she remembered “having to go outside and melt the snow just so we could flush the toilet.”
Tree limbs crashed onto houses, and her father, who worked for the city, came home from long days helping neighbors “all blistered up,” after hours in the cold. Inside, the family relied on kerosene lamps, a gas stove, and “sandwiches and bologna” because the storm hit so unexpectedly that they could not leave to get more food
In Mississippi, 3.7 million acres of forest were destroyed by ice, causing $1.3 billion in timber losses. Overall, the 1994 ice storm resulted in at least nine deaths and over $3 billion in damages and cleanup, making it the worst ice storm in the region in recent decades.
“Yes,” she said when asked if that childhood memory is why she’s taking this storm so seriously. “And I’m probably overdoing it, but I don’t care.”
By most forecasters’ accounts, she is not overdoing it. This weekend’s storm could be worse.
The major winter storm barreling toward the South threatens to expose — once again — how decades of disinvestment have placed Black communities at the greatest risk when extreme weather strikes.
More than 30 million people from Texas to the Carolinas are bracing for potentially catastrophic ice accumulations, prolonged power outages, and freezing temperatures that could persist for days. In neighborhoods where aging infrastructure, substandard housing, and the legacy of redlining are everyday realities, natural disasters intensify long-standing inequities and turn crises into compounded emergencies.
This storm will be a test to the Trump administration’s priorites. The administration has gutted the Federal Emergency Management Agency, slashing hazard mitigation programs and cutting thousands of positions that are likely to be desperately needed to respond to the coming disaster.
James Marshall Shepherd, a leading climate scientist, studies how extreme weather disproportionately affects marginalized communities. His research underscores the severity of what’s coming to the Deep South.
“Any extreme event will often have magnified consequences for some communities and longer recovery time,” Shepherd told Capital B. “Some communities are already energy-burdened, food insecure, and health vulnerable. Extreme cold, large snow totals, and power outages amplify these challenges.”
The storm is hitting states including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, with some of the most severe ice impacts expected in cities from Dallas and Houston through Atlanta, Charlotte, Columbia, and Raleigh.
Storms like this are expected to become more common in the South. Climate change is disrupting the polar vortex, allowing Arctic air to plunge into the southern U.S. more frequently and linger longer, which makes severe winter storms more likely in the region even as the planet overall warms.
Stringer has reasons beyond memory to worry. She has a grandbaby who lives with her and her daughter. Her oldest son needs a liver transplant, and she’s picking him up Friday morning to ride out the storm together.
She worries about whether there will be enough resources for everyone in DeSoto County, where she feels officials “drag” on getting residents what they need, even as she has noticed local leaders now taking this storm “a little bit more serious” as forecasts worsen.
Current forecasts call for freezing rain, sleet, and snow beginning late Friday across Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas. Ice accumulations could reach 1 to 2 inches or more in the hardest-hit zones. Even a quarter-inch of ice can bring down power lines. Half an inch is considered catastrophic. A full inch brings “substantial devastation.”
The National Weather Service warns that the highest probabilities for freezing rain and ice accumulation in Louisiana will be north of Baton Rouge, with the greatest threat in southwest Mississippi and north Louisiana. Tennessee is forecast to see 8 to 9 inches of snow, with a quarter-inch of ice possible. These conditions can have a serious impact on the power grid.
After the storm passes, the cold lingers. Temperatures are forecast to remain in the teens and single digits through Monday, with wind chills plunging below zero — dangerous enough that frostbite can occur on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes. This prolonged freezing means any ice that accumulates will not melt or thaw for days, potentially causing pipes to burst, roads to remain dangerous, and power restoration to take far longer than in warmer climates.
Empty shelves and fears of price gouging
By Wednesday, the shelves of Southern grocery and hardware stores were already bare. At a Kroger just north of Atlanta, shoppers stripped the store of bottled water, bread, and canned goods as early as Wednesday afternoon. An Ace Hardware in Atlanta sold 275 bags of ice melt by evening. In upstate South Carolina, propane vendors ran out entirely by Wednesday afternoon.
But not everyone had the same access. By Thursday morning, some items weren’t running short; they were now running at a profit. Monica Coleman, a Mississippian, said she saw it happening, and it troubled her deeply.
“I’m seeing people hoard resources, and I’m seeing people buy things and then try to resell them, price gouging folks who are just trying to keep their families safe,” Coleman said Friday morning. “This is a time when we really need to be coming together, not looking for ways to profit off our neighbors’ fear.”
Multiple counties and states have already declared price gouging illegal. This prohibits excessive markups on generators, fuel, lodging, food, water, and emergency supplies. North Carolina explicitly authorized law enforcement to pursue violators. But enforcement is reactive. The damage of exploitation — forcing families to choose between heat and food — happens in real time, experts said.
Meanwhile, natural gas prices skyrocketed 25% in a single day as heating demand surged ahead of the storm. Some analysts now predict the next two weeks will be “the toughest challenge for heating oil and natural gas markets in the Northeast in nearly a decade,” with implications for heating costs that will ripple through February bills. For households already spending $1,000 a winter on heating, this storm will add to those costs.
Infrastructure designed to fail
Entergy, the major utility serving Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and East Texas, has activated its storm response protocols and is preparing crews for what could be weeks of restoration work. The utility’s modeling suggests that areas receiving a quarter-inch of ice will experience widespread distribution system outages. Those receiving half an inch could see transformers falling, poles breaking, and substantial portions of the overhead system destroyed.
In 1994, when that ice storm hit, Mississippi Power & Light (now part of Entergy) experienced the largest, longest power outage in its 71-year history. Thousands waited as long as three weeks to get their power back. The company lost 25,985 power poles. It took crews from eight other states and 2,500 additional personnel to restore service.
That was in 1994. Infrastructure has aged since then. Poles are older. Many communities still use equipment designed decades ago and maintained through deferred spending. The smart grid investments that allow automatic rerouting of power to minimize outage duration have been concentrated in wealthier, more densely populated areas.
In Black neighborhoods, particularly in the Deep South, that infrastructure gap remains profound. When Winter Storm Uri hit Texas in 2021, research documented that Black and Hispanic neighborhoods experienced power outages four times longer than white neighborhoods. This disparity was driven by a dynamic of older equipment, fewer backup systems, and lower investment priorities in communities deemed less economically valuable.
Coleman, who grew up in Tunica in the Mississippi Delta and now lives in rural Lafayette County, said that divide is visible even within a single county.
“The last time we iced over here, the city of Oxford had the machinery to salt and clear roads pretty quickly, but out in the county we were stuck for days because we just didn’t have the equipment,” she said. “If you don’t live inside the city limits, you have fewer resources, and that’s just the reality.”
She has spent the past few days calling her neighbors scattered across the woods where she lives — some stranded out in the country, others leaving town ahead of the ice — to ask if they need food, heat, or a ride before conditions worsen.
For elderly residents without transportation, diabetic patients needing refrigerated insulin, those on ventilators or oxygen concentrators powered by electricity, and for families living in homes with inadequate insulation and failing heating systems, a multiday power outage is a medical emergency.
Hospitals are already under strain from unprecedented flu rates.
Coleman said this storm is a reminder that emergency response cannot be built on last-minute panic.
“It’s not about if a storm comes — it’s about when a storm comes,” she said. “People in the South, especially rural communities and communities of color, are first and worst impacted, and yet every time something happens, it feels like we’re never prepared.”
Stringer is also worried about her elderly neighbors. “We have older neighbors on either side of us, so we did let them know if they needed anything that we were going to be going over there checking on them throughout the storm,” she said. “We need each other.”
How to prepare
- WATER: Fill bathtubs, buckets, and large containers with clean water for drinking, cooking, and toilet flushing. Store at least 1 gallon of drinking water per person per day for 5-7 days.
- MEDICATIONS & MEDICAL SUPPLIES: Fill prescriptions. Include insulin, inhalers, blood pressure medications, and any medications requiring refrigeration. Have thermometers, first aid supplies, and pain relievers on hand. If you use a powered medical device (CPAP, oxygen concentrator, ventilator), contact your power company about priority restoration lists and have backup battery power.
- NON-PERISHABLE FOOD: Stock canned goods that require no cooking: soups, beans, tuna, vegetables, fruit, peanut butter, crackers, and high-energy snacks. Include baby food and formula if needed. (Have a manual can opener.)
- HEAT & WARMTH: Check that your primary heating system works. Have blankets, sleeping bags, warm clothing, hats, and gloves for every family member. Know the location of the nearest warming center. Never use a gas oven, stove, or space heater improperly to heat your home.
- POWER & LIGHT: Charge all devices (phones, tablets, laptops, power banks). Locate flashlights and stock multiple batteries. Have a battery-powered or hand-crank radio. Avoid candles during outages due to extreme fire risk. If you have access to a generator, ensure you have fuel and know it must run outside only.
- FUEL & VEHICLE: Gas pumps often don’t work during power outages. Check tire pressure, test wipers, and verify your battery works. Keep an emergency kit in your car: blanket, warm clothes, flashlight, jumper cables, shovel, ice scraper, sand or birdseed for traction, and water.
- CASH & DOCUMENTS: If needed, withdraw cash from ATMs now because machines often don’t work during outages. Make copies of insurance policies, IDs, medical information, and medication lists. Store them in a waterproof container. Have contact numbers for utilities, insurance, doctors, and emergency services written down.
- FOOD PRESERVATION: If you lose power, your refrigerator will keep food safe for only 4 hours if unopened. Make ice: fill ice cube trays and freeze water in bags. Locate coolers and have them ready. Stock ice melt or non-clumping kitty litter for walkways and driveways.
- KNOW YOUR COMMUNITY: Identify the nearest warming centers and their hours before the storm arrives. Know your neighbors’ names, especially elderly residents or those with disabilities. Exchange contact information. Plan to check on them during the storm.