Powerful storm threatens East Coast including parts unaccustomed to heavy snow

NASHVILLE (AP) — A powerful storm bore down on the East Coast on Saturday, with forecasters warning of howling winds, flooding and heavy snow, including in some Southeast coastal communities more accustomed to hurricanes than blizzards. Temperatures plummeted even as tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power.

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — whose official seal is the sun, palm trees and a seagull — 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow was expected. The city has no snow removal equipment, and authorities planned to “use what we can find,” Mayor Mark Kruea said.

Subfreezing weather was forecast into February, with heavy snow in the Carolinas, Virginia and northeast Georgia over the weekend including up to a foot (30 centimeters) in parts of North Carolina. Snow was also said to be possible from Maryland to Maine.

Saturday night and early Sunday, forecasters said, wind and snow could lead to blizzard conditions before the storm moves out to sea.

The frigid cold was expected to plunge as far south as Florida.

Temperatures neared the teens (minus 10 Celsius) in Nashville, Tennessee, and frustrations bubbled up for those who spent a week without power.

Terry Miles, a 59-year-old construction worker whose home has had no electricity since a previous storm struck Sunday, resorted to using a fish fryer for heat and worried about the danger of carbon monoxide.

“I’m taking a chance of killing myself and killing my wife, because — Why?” Miles said after attending a Nashville Electric Service news conference intended to showcase the utility’s repairs on poles and lines. He then pointed to officials.

More than 170,000 homes and businesses were without electricity, mostly in Mississippi and Tennessee, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us. That included more than 57,000 in Nashville as of Friday night.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he shared “strong concerns” with leadership of Nashville Electric Service, adding that residents “need a clear timeline for power restoration, transparency on the number of linemen deployed, and a better understanding of when work will be completed in their neighborhood.”

The utility has defended its response, saying the storm that struck last weekend was unprecedented.

Mississippi officials said the massive winter storm was its worst since 1994. About 80 warming centers were opened, and National Guard troops delivered supplies by truck and helicopter.

Experts warned of the growing risks of hypothermia. Frostbite was also a concern in the South, where some people may lack sufficiently warm clothing, said Dr. David Nestler, an emergency medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

More than 100 people have died from Texas to New Jersey, roughly half of them in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. While some deaths have been attributed to hypothermia, others are suspected to be related to carbon monoxide exposure. Officials have not released specific details about some deaths.

In North Carolina, hundreds of National Guard soldiers readied to help and state workers worked to prepare roads.

The city of Wake Forest saw a steady stream of people filling propane tanks Friday at Holding Oil and Gas, including José Rosa, who arrived after striking out at three other places.

“I’m here in this cold weather, and I don’t like it,” Rosa said as he held a 20-pound (9-kilogram) tank.

In Dare County, home to much of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, residents worried that more unoccupied houses in communities like Rodanthe and Buxton could collapse into the Atlantic Ocean.

Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Jonathan Mattise and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina; Sarah Brumfield in Washington; David Fischer in Fort Lauderdale; Devi Shastri in Milwaukee and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

Tennessee National Guard Specialist Taylor Osteen, left, holds a chainsaw as he takes a break from cutting trees from a road Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Ethan Green, 21, left, an apprentice one lineman at the Yazoo Valley Power Association, looks up at a crew member Taylor Arinder on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026 in Bentonia, Miss. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)

Tennessee National Guard members Taylor Osteen, left, and Antuwan Powell walk along an ice covered road as they work to remove trees Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Austin Bradbury uses a chainsaw to remove a tree above a road Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

That little star on your U.S. driver’s license is about to save you $45.

Beginning Sunday, air travelers in the U.S. without a REAL ID or another acceptable form of identification, such as a passport, are subject to a new fee.

It isn't a penalty or a fine — it's payment for non-compliant travelers to use the Transportation Security Administration's new alternate identity verification option called ConfirmID. But the process takes extra time, and paying the fee doesn’t guarantee you’ll make your flight.

The Department of Homeland Security says most U.S. travelers are already compliant and that the fee is meant to encourage the rest — those without a star-marked REAL ID — to obtain one.

Still, the new fee may catch some passengers off guard, so here's a breakdown:

It is a federally compliant state-issued license or identification card that meets enhanced requirements mandated in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Obtaining the ID means taking more documents to the motor vehicle agency than most states require for regular IDs. It was supposed to be rolled out in 2008, but the implementation was repeatedly delayed.

The updated ID is indicated by a white star in a yellow circle in most U.S. states. It has been required since May, but travelers without it — and without another TSA-accepted ID — were still allowed through security with extra screening and a warning. That changes Sunday.

Travelers 18 and older flying domestically without proper identification on them will have to pay $45 to verify their identity at the airport through the ConfirmID process. If approved, the verification covers a 10-day travel period.

Paying the fee, however, does not guarantee access to U.S. air travel, and passengers whose identities cannot be verified may be turned away at airport security.

“This fee ensures that non-compliant travelers, not taxpayers, cover the cost of processing travelers without acceptable IDs,” said Adam Stahl, acting TSA deputy administrator.

The service fee is paid online at tsa.gov/ConfirmID. Travelers will have to enter their legal name and the start date of their travel. Accepted payment methods include debit and credit cards, Venmo and PayPal.

Someone other than the traveler can make the payment, according to TSA, but the traveler’s information must be entered correctly.

Passengers will then receive an emailed payment receipt from pay.gov.

At the airport checkpoint, show a government-issued ID and a digital or printed copy of the receipt to begin the verification process.

TSA recommends that travelers pay the fee before arriving at the airport to save on time, as the verification process alone could take up to 30 minutes.

TSA accepts digital IDs through platforms such as Apple Wallet and Google Wallet at more than 250 airport checkpoints in the U.S.

The agency has a full list of acceptable IDs on its website. They include:

— Passport or passport card

— Permanent resident cards

— Trusted traveler cards, such as Global Entry or NEXUS

— Military IDs

— Photo IDs from federally recognized tribal nations

FILE - Travelers walk past a Real ID sign posted inside terminal 3 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)