Flights Canceled As U.S. Braces For Multiple Sprawling Winter Storms

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tyrone McDougald wore a long-eared, leopard-style hat as he sorted through racks of warm clothes at a homeless service center in Portland, Oregon. He was already wearing multiple layers, but with no roof of his own, he grabbed two more coats to help him face a bitter cold snap arriving in the Northwest.

“I’m hoping that I can get in a shelter,” he said. “That would relieve a lot of the burden.”

An approaching storm was expected to deliver snow to Portland, a city more accustomed to winter rain, by Saturday. It’s one of a number of sprawling storms bringing everything from what the National Weather Service called “life-threatening wind chills” in South Dakota to the possibility of tornadoes in the South.

School and flights were canceled in advance in parts of the South and Midwest.

Republican candidates campaigning ahead of Monday’s Iowa caucuses were contending with a blizzard warning covering most of the state, and Nikki Haley’s campaign canceled three Friday events and said it would be hosting “telephone town halls.”

Advocates were particularly worried about homeless people as well as older residents who might be snowed or iced in, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where the winters are typically mild.

In one hour Thursday, during the lunch service at Blanchet House, a homeless services nonprofit in Portland, about 165 warm clothing items were claimed — including the coats McDougald grabbed.

Julie Showers, the nonprofit’s spokesperson, said people were desperate for dry clothes and shoes after days of cold rain.

“We worry about frostbite, hypothermia,” she said. “There are a lot of people experiencing homelessness in Portland that are in mental health crisis… and slowly become hypothermic