Snow, ice blasts through South with powerful winter storm

2 years ago 399
File Photo (Virginia Guard Public Affairs)

ATLANTA – A unsafe wintertime tempest combining precocious winds and crystal was sweeping done parts of the U.S. Southeast connected Sunday, knocking retired power, felling trees and fences and coating roads with a treacherous frigid glaze.

Tens of thousands of customers were without powerfulness successful Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. More than an inch of snowfall fell per hr successful immoderate parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, according to the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.

The tempest was making aerial question highly hard successful immoderate parts of the South. The nation’s hardest-hit airdrome -- Charlotte Douglas International -- remained unfastened astir dawn Sunday, the airdrome said successful a upwind briefing. But much than 1,000 Sunday flights successful Charlotte person been cancelled – much than 80% of the airport’s Sunday schedule, according to the formation tracking work flightaware.com. Charlotte is simply a large hub successful the South for American Airlines.

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In Atlanta, wherever Delta Air Lines operates it main hub, much than 300 Sunday flights person been canceled.

Conditions were expected to proceed to deteriorate aboriginal Sunday, and imaginable crushed stops were imaginable astatine airports successful the Washington, D.C. area, the Federal Aviation Administration said in its aerial postulation power program for Sunday.

Parts of North Carolina were nether a wintertime tempest informing until Monday morning. Raleigh was experiencing a premix of frozen precipitation.

Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said to expect a “significant crystal tempest crossed portions of the cardinal Carolinas,” including the Charlotte metropolitan area.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation said Sunday that Interstate 95 was closed successful some directions betwixt Lumberton and Fayetteville owed to low-hanging powerfulness lines. Freezing rainfall had been reported successful the area. Transportation officials advised drivers to instrumentality a detour and said they anticipation to reopen the roadworthy by 2 p.m.

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More than 250,000 customers were without powerfulness by precocious greeting Sunday, according to poweroutage.us. Especially hard deed was Georgia, with astir 110,000 outages. South Carolina had astir 90,000 customers without power. The remaining outages were successful Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Crews pretreated roadways successful Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia but officials inactive urged radical to enactment disconnected them unless question was necessary. The Tennessee Highway Patrol said successful a tweet that immoderate roads successful East Tennessee were snow-covered and that troopers were moving respective accidents owed to ice.

In Greenville, South Carolina, an out-of-the-ordinary snowfall coated roads earlier changing to ice. Much of the authorities was nether a wintertime tempest warning, with winds arsenic precocious arsenic 40 mph (64 kph).

The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado struck southwest Florida. The Florida Highway Patrol reported that a ample tornado crossed Interstate 75 adjacent Naples, causing a semi-truck to overturn. Minor injuries were reported. Florida Power and Light reported that astir 16,000 customers successful southwest Florida were without power.

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Edward Murray, 81, told the Naples Daily News successful southwest Florida that helium was wrong his mobile location Sunday greeting erstwhile a tornado picked it up and tossed it connected apical of his neighbor’s home.

“That’s my location that’s turned upside down,” helium told the newspaper. “The tornado took maine disconnected my feet blew maine toward the eastbound partition and buried maine nether the sink, refrigerator, room chairs and everything else.”

Murray and his daughter, Cokie, escaped unharmed, crawling from the wreckage.

“I was truthful blessed erstwhile I saw the sky,” Murray told the newspaper. “I said to the devil, ‘it’s not going to beryllium today’.”

Lee County firefighters told WINK-TV that 20 homes were destroyed astatine the Tropicana Mobile Home Resort and 1 idiosyncratic was injured.

After lashing the South, upwind forecasters accidental the Northeast tin expect akin conditions.

While New York City was expected to beryllium spared from most, if not all, of the snowfall from the wintertime storm, coastal areas connected Long Island and Connecticut were expecting precocious winds and gale conditions, and upstate New York was projected to get deed with up to a ft of snowfall to spell on with precocious winds. The National Weather Service forecast winds of up to 60 mph crossed Long Island and wide coastal flooding determination and successful Connecticut by Monday morning. In upstate New York, temperatures successful the azygous digits were projected to emergence into the 20s and bring dense snowfall opening Sunday nighttime and lasting until Monday night.

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Six to 12 inches of snowfall was expected successful parts of east-central Ohio and occidental Pennsylvania from Sunday afternoon, resulting successful slick and hazardous roadworthy conditions. In parts of eastbound Pennsylvania, forecasters expected 3 to 5 inches of snowfall aboriginal changing to a wintry premix including sleet and freezing rainfall oregon wholly rain.

Frigid temperatures lingered crossed New England connected Sunday, with upwind chills successful bluish Vermont reported astatine -27 Fahrenheit (-33 Celsius). In Boston, wherever a acold exigency was declared connected Saturday, upwind chills remained beneath zero (-17 C) adjacent arsenic the portion started the thaw.

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Associated Press reporters Dave Porter successful New York City; Jeff Martin successful Woodstock, Georgia; Rebecca Reynolds successful Simpsonville, Kentucky; Terry Spencer successful Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Ron Todt successful Philadelphia; and Collin Binkley successful Killington, Vermont contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.


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