Five dead in midst of frigid Southern U.S. cold snap
A thin layer of snow and ice across the South closed runways, highways, schools and government offices and sent cars sliding off roads Wednesday, while a blast of cold air broke records as far south as the Gulf Coast. At least five deaths were blamed on the weather.
Icicles hung from a statue of jazz musicians in normally balmy New Orleans, and drivers unaccustomed to ice spun their wheels across Atlanta, which was brought to a near-standstill. The beach in Biloxi, Mississippi, got a light coating of snow. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill cancelled classes as the storm unloaded at least 4 inches by late morning.
The snowfall sabotaged the morning rush hour before it even began, sending cars crashing into each other over a swath of the country with precious few snowplows. Officials urged people to stay off the roads if possible, and to bundle up if they ventured outside.
Thousands of schoolchildren and teachers got the day off. Many cities cancelled meetings and court sessions, and some businesses closed. Slippery runways and the need to de-ice planes forced cancellations and delays in New Orleans; Memphis, Tennessee; and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.
On an icy stretch of Interstate 75 southeast of Atlanta, a driver hit a car stopped along the side of the road, killing two men, one inside the vehicle and the other standing beside it, authorities said. Two other people died in weather-related traffic accidents in West Virginia and New Orleans, and homeless man was found dead, apparently of exposure, in freezing Houston.
Outside Five Points Station, the centre of Atlanta’s commuter rail system, a man fell on the sidewalk and appeared unresponsive. An ambulance arrived quickly.
The blast of cold air shattered records early Wednesday in Louisiana and Mississippi, and electricity usage surged to record highs as people tried to keep warm in Texas. It was 6 C before dawn in New Orleans, breaking the city’s record low of -5 C on the same date in 1977.
In Mississippi, the mercury in Hattiesburg dipped to - 11, breaking the record of - 10 C.
Snow fell in a wide band that stretched from southeastern Texas all the way to western Massachusetts. As much as 4 inches fell in parts of North Carolina, where the Highway Patrol had responded to more than 500 collisions by midday.