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More than 10,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend were cancelled as a monster storm started to wreak havoc across much of the country on Saturday (January 24) and threatened to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways with dangerous ice.

Roughly 140 million people, or more than 40 per cent of the US population, were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England. The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.

The Texas Department of Transportation on Saturday posted images of snow-covered highways in the suburbs north of Dallas. Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight moved toward the central part of the state on Saturday.

More than 95,000 power outages were reported across the country Saturday morning, about 36,000 of them in Texas and 10,000 more in Virginia. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma.

Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.

The federal government put nearly 30 search and rescue teams on standby. Officials had more than 7 million meals, 600,000 blankets and 300 generators placed throughout the area the storm was expected to cross, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Metroman” E Sreedharan has said Kerala can hope to see a high-speed rail network that will cut travel-time to Kannur from Thiruvananthapuram to 3.15 hours, as the Centre is expected to formally announce the project soon.

Sreedharan, former Managing Director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), said an office for the high speed rail project has already been established and work on preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) will commence there from February 2.

He said that once approved, the rail project, which will replace the Left government’s ambitious Silverline, will be completed in five years at a cost of Rs 86,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore.

Of this amount, the state and central governments together will bear 60 per cent and the rest would be borrowed, he said.

He further said that 70 per cent of the rail line would be elevated, 20 per cent underground and only 10 per cent of it would be on the surface.

Therefore, the land to be acquired for it will be only one-third of that required for the Silverline project.

Furthermore, after completion of the project, the surplus land around the pillars would be given on lease for cultivation, he said.

The trains will have eight coaches that will accommodate 560 passengers, will travel at a maximum speed of 200 km per hour and stop at 22 stations, the Metroman said.

The high speed rail line will, however, end at Kannur and will not go up to Kasaragod for now.

“Extending it to Kasaragod or even Mangaluru can be considered later, if necessary,” he said.