Nearly a million across US without power as wild winter storm hits

Firefighter killed in Michigan by power line, while 13 million people under winter weather advisories across the country

Nearly a million people across the US were without power on Thursday afternoon as a powerful winter storm brought bitter cold, stirred up gusty winds and pounded several states with blizzard conditions from coast to coast.

Michigan bore the brunt of power outages on Thursday with more than 820,000 homes and businesses left cold into the evening, as the state faced one of the worst ice storms seen in decades. DTE, one of the largest power providers in the state, reported extreme amounts of damage" to power infrastructure after ice roughly three-quarters of an inch thick accumulated in some areas.