Deadly ice and snow bring havoc to U.S. South and East

© H. Darr Beiser,

A wide swath of the nation was digging out Tuesday from a deadly storm that pummeled some areas with heavy snow while others were blasted with treacherous ice.

More than a foot of snow fell in parts of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and West Virginia. Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina were among states where sleet and freezing rain made roads hazardous.

Near-record low temperatures swept through the South, and some areas were encrusted in at least 1/2 inch of ice, the National Weather Service said. More than 200,000 customers lost power in Arkansas, Georgia and the Carolinas, AccuWeather reported.

The National Weather Service warned that the bitter cold temperatures would remain deep into the week.

"This is not your typical North Carolina winter storm where the sunshine melts the snow and ice in a day or two," Gov. Pat McCrory said Tuesday. "The extended low temperatures and black ice likely will make this a dangerous situation for several days."

In North Carolina, Charlotte-Douglas International Airport officials said more than 2000 passengers spent the night in the terminal; cots, mats, pillows and blankets were distributed. Airlines grounded about 1,500 flights due to the storm — and more than 5,700 flights have been grounded nationwide since Sunday due to back-to-back winter storms.

Washington, D.C., and its environs were hit with 4 to 8 inches of snow, enough to shut down federal offices in the region.

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency called on the Tennessee National Guard for assistance in several counties where interstate crashes occurred . Icy road conditions and crashes resulted in a 12-mile backup on I-40 late Monday, TEMA said.

In Franklin, Tenn., a mother and son were hit by a truck and killed after they got out of their car to aid people trapped in an SUV that flipped on an icy roadway, police said. The Weather Channel reported three other road deaths related to the ice -- one each in Tennessee, North Carolina and Kansas.

Two Northern Kentucky cities were mourning the deaths of community leaders who died shoveling snow Monday -- Jack Fischer, in his early 60s, longtime city attorney in Dayton, and R.G. Bidwell, 72, retired assistant fire chief for the City of Florence.

In Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe warned residents to stay off the roads and placed the National Guard on standby.

In Mount Carbon, W.Va., a train carrying scores of crude oil tankers derailed in the storm, sending a fireball into the sky and starting a fire that burned for several hours.

The mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky had the biggest snow totals, according to the weather service. The small town of Logan, W. Va., picked up 15 inches, while in Kentucky, the towns of Beattyville, Estill and Pikeville all had 14 inches.

As Tuesday progressed, signs of hope emerged, Louisville emergency management official Matt Goins said.

"The roads are in really good shape, considering where we were yesterday at this time," Goins said.

Still, more records were likely to fall as the cold spell lingered. Monday saw records fall in several cities: Erie, Pa., dropped to minus-18 degrees, tying the city's all-time record low temperature, according to the National Weather Service. Cleveland's minus-8 degree reading broke a daily record low previously set in 1904.

Daily record lows were also tied or broken in Detroit, Baltimore, Syracuse, Toledo, Trenton, N.J., and Wilmington, Del., the Weather Channel reported.

Boston fell to minus-3 degrees, its coldest reading since January 2004, while Philadelphia bottomed out at 3 degrees, its coldest since January 2005, meteorologist Matt Lanza reported.

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