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Winter storm in North Carolina and Virginia leaves roads impassable
Winter storm in North Carolina and Virginia leaves roads impassable
(about 7 hours later)
A winter storm blanketed parts of North Carolina and Virginia with snow early Saturday as its slow march across the south-east left grocery store shelves empty and roads icy and impassable.
Snow and sleet pounded a large swath of the US east coast on Saturday, coating roads with ice and causing hundreds of crashes. Thousands of people lost power and forecasters warned of blizzard-like conditions from Virginia to parts of the north-east.
The National Weather Service said North Carolina cities including Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Roxboro had received 6in or more of snow overnight, while sleet and ice were making roads treacherous in Raleigh and areas south-east. Next on the storm’s path was south-east Virginia, where the weather service said more than an inch had already accumulated. Some places could get a foot of snow.
Police investigated several fatal crashes as potentially storm-related, but some of the south’s biggest cities – Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh – appeared to avoid the worst of the storm.
Much of North Carolina is under a winter storm warning until 7 pm Saturday. Duke Energy reported more than 21,000 outages in the Carolinas, with many in the Charlotte area. The North Carolina highway patrol reported nearly 70 weather-related vehicle accidents by early Saturday and advised people to stay off the roads.
Authorities praised residents for learning the lessons of past storms that resulted in icy gridlock, where thousands of people were stranded along the interstates, but warned that bitter cold would keep roads treacherous well after the snow and sleet stopped.
In Cornelius, north of Charlotte, Matt Thomas said he used a ruler to measure nearly 6in of snow and sleet that had piled up on the back of his pickup truck. He said his wife stocked up on groceries, and he planned to spend the weekend at home enjoying the snow and watching television. A plow had made a pass through his neighborhood, but the road still looked slick.
“If I tell you anything it would be stay home,” North Carolina governor Roy Cooper said. “Do not go out and drive on the roads unless you absolutely have to.”
“The sleet started first, so there’s definitely a layer of ice under the snow,” he said by phone. “I’m staying home.”
A National Weather Service (NWS) map showed the snowfall seemed to follow the Interstate 85 corridor through the state, with locations along and north of the highway receiving snow and areas to the south getting rain and sleet.
Lauren Rathbone, manager of Public Hardware in Durham, North Carolina, said the store sold out of more than 100 sleds Friday, along with bags and bags of ice melt to treat driveways and walks.
Burlington and Roxboro in central North Carolina received 8in or more of snow. Preliminary figures from the NWS in Greer, South Carolina, showed snowfall totals reached up to 10in in at least seven locations, including Greensboro and High Point, Lewisville in Forsyth County and Lenoir and Rhodhiss in Caldwell County.
“At the beginning, it’s ice melt and sleds. Closer to it when people start realizing it’s going to be super cold, they’ll start working on kerosene heaters, kerosene wicks ... Probably Saturday somebody’s going to be out of electricity, and they’ll start working on lamps,” she quipped.
Several inches fell in south-east Virginia, where a blizzard warning was issued for the cities along the coast.
A blizzard warning for south-east Virginia accompanied forecasts of up to a foot of snow there. Winds in the warning area, which includes Norfolk and Virginia Beach, could reach 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph.
North Carolina reported more than 250 crashes. Virginia state police said they responded to 325 crashes and 322 disabled vehicles across the state between midnight and noon on Saturday. Hundreds of crashes were reported in Tennessee starting on Friday. Hundreds of flights were canceled, from Atlanta to airports farther north.
One fatality, a man whose pickup truck went off a snow-slickened Kentucky road Thursday, has been reported. But the winter road mess caused hundreds of fender benders and other non-injury crashes, some involving school buses, on Nashville, Tennessee, roads by Friday.
At least one fatality – a man whose pick-up truck went off a snow-slickened Kentucky road on Thursday – was blamed on the weather. Motorist deaths in North Carolina and Maryland as the storm blew in were being investigated to see if they were caused by the weather.
Nashville’s city school district ordered classes to start as scheduled Friday morning but had to hastily announce early dismissals as police reports of non-injury crashes multiplied. All students made it safely home.
Power outages had grown to about 25,000 in North Carolina alone, according to a news release from the governor. Nearly half were in the Charlotte area and adjacent Union County, according to Duke Power.
“We apologize,” Chris Henson, Nashville schools chief operating officer. “We realize that it’s been very frustrating for everyone.”
The unpredictable storm left some areas with much different outcomes than neighboring counties. Unofficial totals from the NWS showed that much of Raleigh and Charlotte had 2in or less of precipitation – much of it sleet – while areas to the north of both cities got several inches of snow.
Ice forming Friday evening near sunset made driving dangerous on some Mississippi highways. State transportation officials reported ice on roads and bridges in more than half of the state’s counties.
In Atlanta and parts of Georgia, people who were expecting a couple of inches of snow instead woke up to a thin coat of ice. The NWS said a wind chill advisory for northern Georgia was to go into effect later Saturday into Sunday. Residents should brace for bitterly cold air and strong wind.
And Alabama was under a winter storm warning until Saturday morning from the wintry mix. By midday, the storm was expected to clear out, but ice would likely remain as highs would only get into the 30s. By Tuesday, temperatures are expected to reach the almost balmy 50s and 60s.
A blizzard warning for south-east Virginia accompanied forecasts of high winds and up to 9in of snow there. The NWS had already measured nearly 6in of snow at its post in Wakefield on Saturday.
One to 3in of snow fell across northern Georgia before tapering off Saturday morning, forecasters said. Though rain and freezing rain fell at times in Atlanta, its workers, schools and companies were dismissed early Friday, avoiding a repeat of the epic snowstorm traffic jam of January 2014 that stranded motorists in cars on interstates. Some took to sledding in snow-coated northern Atlanta suburbs and in Tennessee.
The storm also upended plans for inaugural celebrations for the new North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, who was supposed to have an outdoor inaugural ceremony Saturday attended by thousands. He instead rushed through a 20-minute indoor oath-taking Friday before settling into his first assignment: storm preparedness.
“Consider yourselves the chosen few,” Cooper jokingly told those able to attend his swearing-in Friday. Instead of Saturday’s daylong ceremonies and parade, he planned to open with a morning storm briefing before addressing the state via television.
Many said they were planning to spend the weekend hunkered down at home. “Whenever snow comes, people get really excited. I’m a little excited,” said Donovan Cheatham, who studies music at North Carolina Central University and plays in jazz bands. He and roommate Collin Williams said if they got snowed in, they might miss a paying gig but wwould jam anyway, Collins on alto saxophone and Cheatham on drums.
“Practice. We’ll get a lot of practice in,” Williams said.
