More arctic air expected in parts of the South still covered in ice and riddled with power outages

When a massive winter storm descended on the Northeast and parts of the South over the weekend, Lisa Patterson planned to stick it out at her family's home in Nashville.

But after she and her husband lost power, trees fell onto their driveway and their wood stove proved no match for the frigid temperatures, the couple and their dog had to be rescued and taken to a warming shelter.

“I’ve been snowed in up there for almost three weeks without being able to get up and down my driveway because of the snow. I’m prepared for that. But this was unprecedented," Patterson said.

The family was among many across Tennessee and other parts of the South that have fled to warming shelters as crews worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of households in the face of a new influx of arctic air expected to spur freezing temperatures Tuesday in places already covered in snow and ice.

At least 30 deaths have been reported in states afflicted with severe cold, including two people run over by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, fatal sledding accidents that killed teenagers in Arkansas and Texas, and a woman whose body was found covered in snow in Kansas. In New York City, officials said eight people were found dead outdoors over the frigid weekend.

The storm had dropped over a foot (30 centimeters) of snow across a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) swath from Arkansas to New England, halting traffic, canceling thousands of flights and triggering wide school closures Monday. The National Weather Service said areas north of Pittsburgh got up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of snow and faced wind chills as low as minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31 degrees Celsius) late Monday into Tuesday.

More widespread record cold temperatures were forecast for Tuesday, with eastern Texas through western Pennsylvania under extreme cold warnings, according to the National Weather Service. In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear warned that the temperatures could be so frigid that as little as 10 minutes outside “could result in frostbite or hypothermia.”

And forecasters said it’s possible another winter storm could hit parts of the East Coast this weekend.

There were still more than 550,000 power outages in the nation Monday night, according to poweroutage.com. Most of them were in the South, where weekend blasts of freezing rain caused tree limbs and power lines to snap, inflicting crippling outages on northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee. Officials warned that it could take days for power to be restored.

In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday at least 14 homes and 20 public roads had major damage in the aftermath of the state’s worst ice storm since 1994. The University of Mississippi canceled classes for the entire week as its Oxford campus remained coated in treacherous ice.

New York City saw its snowiest day in years, with neighborhoods recording 8 to 15 inches (20 to 38 centimeters) of snow, forcing the nation’s largest public school system to shut down.

Meanwhile, bitter cold followed in the storm's wake. Communities across the Midwest, South and Northeast awakened Monday to subzero weather. The entire Lower 48 states were forecast to have their coldest average low temperature of minus 9.8 F (minus 12.3 C) since January 2014.

Nathan Hoffner sent his 4-year-old son to stay with his son’s mother after his rental house in Nashville lost power midday Sunday. He and his roommate layered up with clothes and several blankets overnight and by the next morning the temperature inside the home had dropped dramatically.

“I saw my breath in the house,” Hoffner said.

Kramon reported from Atlanta. Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writers around the country contributed.

Carrie Hampton tries to navigate a snowy intersection without spilling her coffee in New York, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A person walks their dog in the snow after a storm in Portsmouth, N.H., Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

In this image provided by the City of Oxford, Miss., snow and ice cover trees and streets as a winter storm passes through, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Oxford, Miss. (Josh McCoy/City of Oxford, Miss. via AP)

A man digs a car out of the snow on Beacon Hill following a winter storm that dumped more than a foot of snow across the region, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

A lineman works to restore power in Oxford, Miss. on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, following a weekend ice storm. (AP Photo/Bruce Newman)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges at the International Criminal Court ruled on Monday that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is fit to stand trial, after postponing an earlier hearing over concerns about the octogenarian’s health.

Duterte is facing charges of crimes against humanity for his alleged involvement in dozens of killings as part of his so-called war on drugs when in office, first as the mayor of a southern city and later as president.

Lawyers for the 80-year old had argued Duterte was in frail health and his condition was deteriorating in the court’s detention unit.

Duterte was arrested in March and was set to appear in court in The Hague in September. That hearing was delayed after a pretrial panel of judges granted “limited postponement” to give the court time to determine “whether Mr Duterte is fit to follow and participate” in the proceedings.

Following an assessment by a panel of medical experts, judges found that Duterte “is able effectively to exercise his procedural rights and is therefore fit to take part in the pre-trial proceedings.”

The hearing has now been reschedule for Feb. 23.

The panel included experts in geriatric neurology and psychiatry. According to court filings, Duterte underwent cognitive testing, as well as mental and physical examinations.

Duterte's lead lawyer, Nick Kaufman, said he was disappointed in the decision and would seek to appeal. The defense was “denied the opportunity to present its own medical evidence and to question, in court, the contradictory findings of professionals selected by the judges,” he said.

Rights groups and families of victims hailed Duterte’s arrest in March. Two organizations supporting the families of suspects killed in Duterte’s crackdown hailed the court’s decision as “a resounding victory for justice and accountability.”

In a joint statement, SENTRO and the CATW-AP said, “The ICC’s ruling reaffirms a simple but powerful truth: No one, not even a former head of state, is above the law.”

According to a filing last month, ICC prosecutors claim Duterte instructed and authorized “violent acts including murder to be committed against alleged criminals, including alleged drug dealers and users.”

Prosecutors announced in February 2018 that they would open a preliminary investigation into the so-called war on drugs overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president.

In a move that human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability, Duterte, who was president at the time, announced a month later that the Philippines would leave the court.

Judges rejected a request from Duterte's legal team to throw out the case on the grounds that the court did not have jurisdiction because the Philippines had withdrawn from the court. Countries can’t “abuse” their right to withdraw from the Rome Statute “by shielding persons from justice in relation to alleged crimes that are already under consideration,” the September decision says.

Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported to up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.

FILE - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte addresses the troops during the 82nd anniversary celebration of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in suburban Quezon city northeast of Manila, Philippines on Dec. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)