Mexico Freak winter rains across Mexico collapsed hillsides, sent rivers over their banks and left at least 15 people dead, officials said on Friday, February 5. The rain, which began early in the week and peaked on Thursday, February 4, had relented by Friday morning, providing officials with their first good look at the damage. More than half of the country was affected. The hardest area hit by the storm was the western state of
Michoacán, a famous reserve for
monarch butterflies, where at least 13 people were killed by landslides and flooding. An unknown number of people were missing Friday. Other areas that were hard hit by flooding was the eastern Mexico City borough of
Iztapalapa and municipalities in eastern
State of Mexico such as
Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl and
Ecatepec de Morelos. The rain broke records for February in Michoacán, the State of Mexico and Mexico City, with twice the normal amount for the entire month falling in 24 hours. There was a silver lining: Officials said the copious rain had filled reservoirs outside
Mexico City that are a key source of water for the metropolis. Water shortages had forced on-and-off rationing since last summer.
Deep South Prolonged rains from Thursday morning through Thursday evening (February 4), produced widespread rainfall totals of – statewide with flooding reported in portions of Central and Southern
Mississippi. The capital city of
Jackson broke a daily rainfall record with of rainfall. Power outages were reported in
North Carolina's mountain counties as the winter storm brought a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain to much of the state and rain to the rest, with about 40,000 outages late Friday afternoon (5 February). A drenching rain fell early Friday in the
Charlotte and
Atlanta area and then transitioned to a few inches of snow later in the day, while several inches of snow accumulated farther north. Parts of central and eastern North Carolina were under flood watches in advance of significant rainfall of up to .
Midwest Heavy snowfall occurred in
Illinois,
Indiana, and
Ohio February 4–6. Snowfall totals ranged from to over across the region. Drifts of up to were reported in central Indiana. The heavy snow,
ice storms and low temperatures of January the 26th led to
Interstate 90 being closed from
Chamberlain, South Dakota, to the
Minnesota border. On the nightfall on Monday,
Interstate 29 was closed from
Sioux Falls to the
North Dakota border. Power outages began with a storm in December knocking down around 5,000 power poles, and was accelerated by an ice storm Jan. 22 knocking down another 3,000 power lines on the reservation. Among the tribes of South Dakota who suffered from the multiple storms were
Cheyenne River Sioux,
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe,
Flandreau-Santee Sioux Tribe,
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe,
Rosebud Sioux Tribe,
Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Episcopal Church stepped in to help the reservations residents survive the winter. On February 1, utility crews worked overtime to get power back to the 14,000 residents of
Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. The
wind chill factor averaged about 25 °F below zero and there was about 1 foot of snow on average.
Mid-Atlantic The
United States Government implemented an unscheduled leave policy for federal employees on Friday February 5 and shut down four hours early in an effort to clear metropolitan Washington before substantial snow accumulations began. Numerous school districts in the
Washington metropolitan area announced closures for Friday February 5 well in advance, although
District of Columbia Public Schools and some Maryland schools held a half day of class. Many districts had used all their built-in snow days and some began scheduling classes on upcoming holidays, such as
Fairfax County, Virginia, on February 15, the Monday of
President's Day weekend. Late on Sunday February 7, the
Office of Personnel Management announced that the
United States Government would again be closed on Monday February 8, with only emergency/essential personnel required to report, and numerous school districts again canceled classes between February 9–11. A
Washington Wizards game was postponed due to the storm. ,
Pentagon City, Arlington, Virginia In Maryland, the
Maryland Transit Administration ran special snow trains on its heavy rail and light rail lines to keep tracks clear.
Delaware Gov.
Jack Markell declared a state of emergency Friday night and ordered all vehicles off the roads by 10 p.m. EST (this was in addition to an earlier state of emergency declared by Virginia Gov.
Bob McDonnell and snow emergencies declared in the
District of Columbia and some Maryland counties). Maryland was under a state of emergency as of mid-day on February 6, as state and county road crews said they were struggling to keep even one lane open on major roads and 151,000 customers were without power in Maryland, including 34,000
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers in the region. Cars were left abandoned on highways, trees came down and Humvees were used to ferry patients to local hospitals. The
United States Postal Service decided to cancel mail delivery and collection in the affected areas for Saturday, February 6. Also reported were the collapse of a house roof in
Northeast, Washington, D.C., a house in the Luxmanor Area in
Rockville, Maryland, which collapsed from a fire that resulted from trying to melt the snow from the roof, the entire Prince William Ice Center in
Dale City, Virginia, and the total collapse of a
warehouse in
California, Maryland. In none of the four cases were there reports of injuries. Around 2 pm EST on February 6, DC fire and EMS personnel responded to a church collapse in
Northeast DC–preliminary reports from the scene were that the weight of the heavy snow caused the 1- or -story wooden building to completely collapse, and subsequent gas leaks caused some neighbors to be evacuated. The roof of St. John's School in
Hollywood, Maryland, also collapsed, as did the roof of the truck bay at the volunteer fire station in
Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, on the morning of Monday February 8, but there were no injuries.
Amtrak shut down much of their service in the region, canceling its
Silver Meteor,
Silver Star,
Crescent,
Carolinian,
Palmetto, and
Capitol Limited, as well as canceling
Cardinal service past
Huntington, West Virginia However services north continued to operate through the teeth of the storm on a limited schedule. In
Pittsburgh, both the impact and severity of the storm caught many by surprise. Snow began falling in earnest late Friday morning. The sudden onset of the storm forced many local school districts, especially districts south of the city, to close early due to rapidly deteriorating road conditions; this is an extremely uncommon event for schools in southwestern Pennsylvania. Nearly all schools, including the
Pittsburgh Public Schools, cancelled classes the following week. Most local universities were also forced to cancel classes for much of the following week due to the storm's effects. Additionally, over 130,000 people in the Pittsburgh area were without power as a result of the heavy, wet snow. For many residents, power was not restored until Monday, February 15. ==Notable events==