A massive winter storm moving across the eastern half of the United States knocked out power to over 4 lakh 18 thousand homes and businesses in 12 states ahead of a brutal freeze expected to blanket the region starting this weekend.<br />''<br />''The hardest hit states so far were Florida with over 1 lakh 2 thousand power outages, Georgia with over 62,000 outages and North Carolina with over 44,000 outages.<br />''<br />''Extreme weather is a reminder of the February freeze in 2021 that left millions in Texas and other US Central states without power, water and heat for days, and a winter storm in December 2022 that almost caused the collapse of power and natural gas systems in parts of the eastern half of the country.<br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">The current storm is covering most of the country east of the Mississippi River and it is moving toward the US Northeast. </span><br />