Winter wallops the U.S.
Winter storm warnings issued for 14 states in South, East
A man clears several inches of snow Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, after a winter storm crossed the state overnight dropping as much as 14 inches of snow in some places. The system plunged on through the South and the East, with winter storm warnings issued in at least 14 states, including Arkansas. More photos at arkansasonline.com/116icesnow/.
ATLANTA — Forecasts of snow and ice as far south as Georgia put a big part of the Southeast on an emergency preparedness footing Saturday, as shoppers scoured store shelves for storm supplies and crews raced to treat highways and roads.
In Virginia, where a blizzard left thousands of motorists trapped on clogged highways earlier this month, Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency on his last day in office and urged people to take the approaching storm seriously. In North Carolina, some store shelves were stripped bare of essentials including bread and milk.
By Friday, the fast-moving storm had already dropped heavy snow across a large part of the Midwest, where travel conditions deteriorated and scores of schools closed or moved to online instruction.
Iowa was hit the hardest. Brad Small, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the airport in Des Moines saw more than 14 inches of snow and that a big part of central and southern Iowa recorded between 9 inches and a foot.
The Iowa State Patrol reported that 207 motorists were assisted and that 78 crashes had occurred in a four-hour period Friday evening.
Parts of Tennessee were forecast to get as much as 6 inches of snow, and northern Mississippi and the Tennessee Valley region of Alabama were expected to have light snow accumulations. With lows predicted in the 20s across a wide area, any precipitation could freeze, making driving difficult if not hazardous.
Travis Wagler said he hadn’t seen such a run on supplies at his Abbeville, S.C., hardware store in at least two winters.
“We’re selling everything you might expect: sleds, but also salt, shovels and firewood,” Wagler said Friday at Abbeville Hardware. The region faced predictions of a quarter-inch of ice or more on trees and power lines.
A winter storm warning extended from just north of metropolitan Atlanta to Arkansas in the west and to upstate New York in the north. It covered parts of at least 14 states, including Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.
A mixture of ice and up to an inch of snow were expected in Atlanta, according to an advisory issued Saturday by the National Weather Service.
Nearly 2,000 flights within the U.S. had already been canceled for today in anticipation of snow and ice in the South, according to the flight-tracking site flightaware.com. Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, a major U.S. airport hub for American Airlines, led the list of cancellations.
American Airlines canceled nearly 500 flights for today, 17% of its daily schedule. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines canceled more than 130 of its flights.
“Hopefully, the storm will underdeliver, but it could overdeliver. We just don’t know,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said as he announced storm preparations. He declared a state of emergency, and crews began treating major roads and highways in north Georgia.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster also issued an emergency order, saying the state would likely start feeling the effects of the winter storm this morning.
At a news conference Saturday, McMaster urged residents to stay off the roads.
“This is going to be a pretty bad storm in the upper part of the state,” McMaster said. “The good news is it’ll be coming on the weekend and holiday on Monday, so schools and offices will be closed. That’s good because there won’t be that many people on the roads, and that’s good because we’re expecting a lot of ice on the roads.”
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an emergency order, and the administration urged people to stay at home once the storm hit. The state highway agency warned that labor shortages meant crews might not respond to problem areas as quickly as normal.
The storm, after its expected weekend dip into the Southeast, is expected to head into the Northeast while dropping snow, sleet and rain around the densely populated Eastern Seaboard. Officials across New England warned residents to stay indoors Saturday as a blast of Arctic air drove wind chill temperatures as low as minus-35 degrees.
Many schools and businesses will be closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which could help reduce travel problems.
Information for this article was contributed by Jay Reeves,Sarah Brumfield, Tom Foreman Jr., Jeff Martin, Gary Robertson and Ben Finley of The Associated Press.