Officials and forecasters in several states use unusually dire language in warnings.
Drivers got caught in monumental traffic jams and abandoned their cars Wednesday in North Carolina in a replay of what happened in Atlanta just two weeks ago, as another wintry storm across the South iced highways and knocked out electricity to more than a half-million homes and businesses. While Atlanta's highways were clear, apparently because people learned their lesson the last time and heeded forecasters' unusually dire warnings to stay home, thousands of cars lined the slippery, snow-covered interstates around Raleigh, N.C., and short commutes turned into hours-long journeys.
As the storm glazed the South with snow and freezing rain, it also pushed northward along the Interstate 95 corridor, threatening to bring at least 15 cm of snow Thursday to the already sick-of-winter mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
At least 10 deaths across the South were blamed on the treacherous weather, and nearly 3,300 airline flights nationwide were cancelled.
The situation in North Carolina was eerily similar to what happened in Atlanta: As snow started to fall around midday, everyone left work at the same time, despite warnings from officials to stay home altogether because the storm would move in quickly. Two Alabama Department of Transportation employees work to free up a sand truck from Highway 176 around Little River Canyon on Tuesday. Soo Keith, of Raleigh, left work about a little after noon, thinking she would have plenty of time to get home before the worst of the snow hit. Instead, Keith, who is three months pregnant, drove a few miles in about two hours and decided to park and start walking, wearing dress shoes and a coat that wouldn't zip over her belly.
Ice combined with wind gusts up to 48 km/h snapped tree limbs and power lines. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost electricity in Georgia, South Carolina had about 245,000 outages, and North Carolina had around 100,000. Some people could be in the dark for days.
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