A deadly winter storm gripped the southeastern United States on Wednesday, crippling travel, knocking out power to 363,000 homes and businesses and encasing magnolia and palmetto trees in ice.
The weather was blamed for at least 13 deaths in the region, including three who were killed when an ambulance transporting a patient skidded off an icy road in Carlsbad, Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
Winter storm warnings and advisories were in place from Arkansas east to much of the Atlantic coast, the National Weather Service said. The storm is expected to sock the northeastern United States in the next two days with up to 15 inches of snow, it said.
Snow and freezing rain that were pummeling South Carolina and North Carolina created a dangerous commute for drivers in a hurry to get home as the snowfall got heavier and the ice thickened.
A possibly historic accumulation of ice as well as heavy snow was expected to add up to nearly 8 inches of frozen precipitation for Charlotte, North Carolina, and 9 inches were forecast for Spartanburg, South Carolina, meteorologists said.
More than an inch of ice was possible from central Georgia into South Carolina by Thursday morning, according to forecasters.
Traffic on interstate highways ground to a halt, and at least one snow plow went off a North Carolina highway into a ditch. The icy gridlock was reminiscent of a snowstorm that shut down Atlanta just two weeks ago.
Governors declared states of emergencies from Louisiana to New Jersey, and hundreds of schools, colleges and offices throughout the region shut down. The basketball game between arch rivals Duke University and the University of North Carolina was called off.
More than 3,300 U.S. flights were canceled and about 2,800 delayed on Wednesday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. Another 3,700 flights were canceled for Thursday, with about half of the flights to and from Washington and New York called off.
Hardest hit were Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta and Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina.
The U.S. Department of Energy reported that 363,000 power customers were without electricity as of mid-afternoon. More than a third of them were in Georgia, where some residents may have to wait up to a week for power to be restored, said Georgia Power spokeswoman Amy Fink.
Source: Reuters
