Northeast bracing for winter storm

A strong winter storm brought heavy snow to parts of the Southeast on Sunday and was expected to leave about 1 foot of snow in parts of the Northeast, knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers as dangerous ice coated highways in the Carolinas.

In the South, where some governors declared states of emergency Friday, areas such as central Mississippi and central North Carolina had already received more than 9 inches of snow, while portions of Alabama and Tennessee had a mixture of snow and freezing rain, the National Weather Service said.

“This storm is going to be pretty significant in terms of generating travel impacts, outages and things of that nature,” said Rich Otto, a meteorologist with the weather service.

In Georgia, about 46,000 customers were without power Sunday afternoon, according to Power Outage.us. South Carolina had nearly 78,000 customers without power, and North Carolina had about 86,000.

More than a quarter-inch of ice was expected to accumulate in the Piedmont regions of North and South Carolina on Sunday.

Forecasters said the storm system could bring more than 1 foot of snow to some areas, including parts of the Appalachians and upstate New York. Parts of the upper Midwest and Pennsylvania could get up to 2 feet of snow, Otto said.

Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina warned residents at a news conference Sunday to stay off the roads because parts of the state had received up to 1 foot of snow.

The storm system also spawned at least one tornado in southwestern Florida on Sunday morning, the Weather Service said. There were no reports of injuries or deaths, local officials said, but there was widespread damage. About 200 people were displaced.

As the storm moved toward the Northeast on Sunday afternoon, it was expected to remain inland, meaning cities closer to the coast, from Washington to Boston, will primarily receive heavy rain, Otto said.