Nearly two-thirds of the United States is recovering from Winter Storm Fern that brought with it frigid temperatures, freezing rain, snow, ice and sleet.
Rain and snow are two of the four great judgments Allah (God) uses, teaches the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam.
In His book, “The Fall of America,” in Chapter 36 titled, “Four Great Judgments of America,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote on the destructive effects of rain and snow.
Rain destroys property and lives, weakens and destroys railroads, truck line beds and bridges, undermines the foundations of buildings, and can cause sickness, He wrote.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad described snow as “the most dreaded plague” when it comes in great drifts from five to 35 feet. “It buries your property and lives. It destroys your highways, your cities, and your concrete and gravel in towns and cities,” He wrote.
“Snow is prophesied to be one of the weapons that God will use against the wicked (America),” He added, referencing the Bible’s Book of Job, Chapter 38, verses 22 and 23, which states:
“Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?”
Winter Storm Fern contributed to the deaths of at least 85 people across 13 states—Kansas, Massachusetts, Ohio, Arkansas, Texas, New York, Tennessee, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina and Kentucky, with concerns the number could increase. Causes of death included hypothermia, snowplows that backed into people, sledding accidents and drowning in an icy pond.
One man died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Louisiana. In Nashville, a children’s hospital reported nearly 30 patients treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. Health officials warned about using gas-powered stoves as a home heating source and about using generators too close to the home, as both can contribute to poisoning.
In a 72-hour timespan, from the morning of Jan. 24 to the morning of Jan. 27, dozens of cities experienced 20 or more inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service’s snowfall reports and map. Dozens more experienced at least a foot of snow. Some areas experienced wind chills below zero.
Southern cities that did not get massive snow, such as parts of Georgia, instead received freezing rain and ice storms, causing black ice on the roads.
By the morning of Jan. 26, more than half of the contiguous U.S. was covered in snow, making it the second-highest snow coverage in the U.S. in 20 years, according to meteorologists.
“Arctic air settling over the region will limit natural melting, keeping homes cold and prolonging infrastructure strain, with nighttime lows dipping into the teens and single digits in some areas,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Alexander Duffus said.
The freezing temperatures brought by Winter Storm Fern set the stage for a new round of Arctic air, bringing in a second winter storm on the following weekend of Jan. 31.
The second storm brought more snow to the Southeast, blizzard conditions to North Carolina and Virginia and a bomb cyclone that hit parts of Tennessee, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts. A bomb cyclone is a storm that rapidly intensifies with the potential of bringing hurricane-force winds.
North Carolina’s governor declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, and over 190 million people were under weather alerts, according to The Washington Post. Florida, the sunshine state, also braced for cold, wind and snow flurries.
Winter Storm Fern aftermath
Winter Storm Fern caused massive power outages, flight cancellations, traffic disruptions, school closures and snapped trees.
By late Jan. 25, more than 800,000 homes and businesses were without power. On the morning of Jan. 27, more than 550,000 customers were still without power.
The power outages were concentrated in the South, with nearly 175,000 homes and businesses in the dark in Tennessee, more than 140,000 in Mississippi, more than 97,000 in Louisiana, nearly 39,000 in Texas, nearly 27,000 in Kentucky and more than 20,000 in Georgia, according to poweroutage.us.
Between Jan. 24 and Jan. 27, more than 23,000 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. were canceled, according to live flight tracking data from FlightAware. Nearly half of the flights were canceled on Jan. 25, the highest single-day total since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 5,400 National Guard troops were activated across 15 states to help recovery efforts, the National Guard Bureau’s chief’s Facebook page posted on Jan. 26.
“The highways are still ice. Trees are still blocking roadways,” Oxford, Mississippi, Mayor Robyn Tannehill said in a Facebook post. “It is complete devastation. It looks like a tornado went down every street. There is no safe means of travel on the roads right now.”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves reported on Jan. 27 that dozens of counties in the state “were in need of bottled water, blankets, tarps, fuel and generators,” and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned that the temperatures could become so frigid that as little as 10 minutes outside “could result in frostbite or hypothermia,” according to The Associated Press.
Along with the devastating effects of snow and ice, several southern states were under tornado watches, and a rare snow avalanche occurred in Pennsylvania.
AccuWeather estimated that Winter Storm Fern caused $105 billion to $115 billion in damages and economic losses, including damage to homes and businesses, disruptions to commerce and supply chain logistics, tourism losses, impacts on shipping operations at major hubs, financial losses from extended power outages, major travel delays and damage to infrastructure.
Snow “puts a great burden of expense upon the cities,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote in “The Fall of America.”
“It puts a great burden of expense upon the city to repair it. The cave-in of roofs of homes, the cutting off of homes, the cutting off of transportation, isolating areas, brings about starvation. And communication is destroyed with the icing of communication wires,” He added.
The winter storm was just the latest in Allah’s (God’s) Divine Chastisement of America because of its mistreatment of Black people. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote that the more America deceives “the American so-called Negro,” the more America’s divine chastisement would increase, leading to the country’s doom.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, said to Black people that God is threatening to destroy America for them.
“He’s come to fight your battles for you because the battle is not yours, the battle is His,” Minister Farrakhan said during his Holy Day of Atonement 2018 address, in commemoration of the Million Man March. He warned listeners to “watch the weather” and warned President Donald Trump during his first term in office.
“I’m saying to Mr. Trump: Mr. President, you’re going to have to think about holding on to Black people as hostages. You have nothing for us to do so you’re planning genocide for an entire people. You think God is going to let you do that?
I want you as the People of God to watch God work for you,” Minister Farrakhan said. “The next thing He’s coming with is more rain. Winter’s here, more snow, hail. But when the earthquakes come, buildings are going to go down in the major cities. God is not to be overcome.”