WINTER STORM BRINGS HEAVY SNOWFALL AND SERIOUS HAVOC TO SOUTHEAST USA
A winter storm that has brought havoc to airline and highway traffic across much of the nation crawled east Sunday, pummeling the Southeast with snow and sleet.
Almost 300,000 homes and businesses were without power in North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama early Sunday. Thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed from Texas to the Carolinas.
In North Carolina, more than 1,000 flights were cancelled in and out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport alone. Parts of North Carolina could see snow measured in feet rather than inches before the storm finally rolls out to sea, a forecast that compelled Gov. Roy Cooper to declare a state of emergency.
In the western part of the state, the city of Boone already had 10 inches of snow early Sunday.
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“This is a snow storm, not a snowfall – it’s serious,” Gov. Cooper said. “In the Piedmont to western parts of our state, we’re preparing for days of impact, not hours.”
Cooper warned that utility companies projected widespread power outages affecting over half a million homes and businesses. In some areas, power could be out for days, he said.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam also declared a state of emergency, urging state residents to "take all necessary precautions to ensure they are prepared" for the storm.
The storm dumped heavy rains on Los Angeles more than a week ago before slamming across the southern Plains into the Southeast, leaving a swath of power outages, delayed and canceled flights and dangerous road conditions in its wake. The Southeast was next in line before the storm was expected to move northeastward over the Atlantic Ocean, the National Weather Service said.
Asheville, N.C., is expected to bear a large brunt of the storm, with up to two feet falling around much of the region this weekend, followed by treacherous and icy conditions early next week.
Emergency officials were bringing in extra staff and cautiously monitoring whether ice accumulates under all the snow, making travel increasingly dangerous.
SOURCE USA TODAY
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