Morning Update: A Winter Storm Has Killed At Least 9 People

A winter storm thrashes the US, a mass overdose in California, and one well-liked egg. Your BuzzFeed News newsletter, Jan. 14

A powerful winter storm has killed at least 9 people and left hundreds of thousands without power

The storm covered large swaths of the US in snow, slush, and ice, leaving a trail of deadly car crashes and widespread power outages in its wake.

On Sunday, the storm, which began Friday in the Midwest, slammed North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC, covering the nation's capital with between 4 and 7 inches of snow and forcing the three main airports in the region to cancel hundreds of flights.

As of Sunday evening, Virginia state troopers said they responded to about 324 crashes on the slick, icy highways, which killed three people and stranded nearly 200 vehicles. Officials have urged drivers to stay off the roads until later Monday.

Over the weekend, the storm also snarled traffic in Missouri and Illinois, stranding hundreds of drivers for hours and causing a rash of deadly crashes. In Missouri, ice, sleet, and slush resulted in 800 accidents, authorities said, killing at least four people and injuring 57 others.

Trump shut down the government over a “humanitarian crisis” at the border. He also shut down most of the office trying to fix it.

While President Donald Trump continues to demand funding for a wall to stop migrants from Central America entering the US, a State Department office charged with trying to address the problems that make people flee to the US in the first place has been crippled by the shutdown.

Two employees of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations told BuzzFeed News that their department has been working specifically to address the instability that has resulted in 92,959 asylum-seekers leaving countries in Central America for the US in fiscal year 2018 alone.

But 90% of the bureau’s staff are not able to work on those programs, according to these employees, with most of them furloughed and not working.

SNAPSHOTS

One person died and 12 others were hospitalized in Chico, Northern California, on Saturday after overdosing. “Every indication is that this mass overdose incident was caused from the ingestion of some form of fentanyl in combination with some other substance,” an official said.

Out: Jogging. In: Plogging. It's a fitness trend that originated in Sweden where people pick up litter while jogging, but its growing popularity means there are now uh…ploggers…all over the world.

The first photo of Jayme Closs, the girl found alive three months after her parents were killed, has been released. The photo shows the 13-year-old with her beloved dog, Molly, and her aunt Jennifer Smith.

An alleged interview with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was pulled after he called it “100% fabricated.” The UK tabloid the Daily Star took down the story, which claimed Johnson said “Generation Snowflake or, whatever you want to call them, are actually putting us backwards,” after he called out the piece for being entirely made up.

A picture of an egg beat Kylie Jenner for the most liked Instagram of all time

It's just a picture of an egg, but with 21.1 million likes as of the time of this writing, it's cracked the 18.1-million-like record Jenner set on a photo in February of last year.

The Egg Gang account @world_record_egg hatched this plan when it first published the egg photo on Jan. 4. “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this,” the account’s bio read.

Kylie Jenner responded by sharing a video of her smashing an egg on the road.

Skip to footer