A winter storm combining high winds and ice was sweeping through parts of the south-east of the US. For that, the areas were knocking out power, felling trees and fences, and creating treacherous driving conditions.
Which areas did it take place in?
Tens of thousands of customers were without power in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. More than an inch of snow fell per hour in some parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia, according to the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Centre.
The storm was making air travel extremely difficult in some parts of the south of the country. The nation’s hardest-hit airport Charlotte Douglas International remained open around dawn on Sunday, the airport said in a weather briefing.
What erosion damage happened?
For the winter storm, 1,000 Sunday flights in Charlotte were cancelled. More than 80% of the airport’s Sunday schedule, according to the flight tracking service flightaware.com. Charlotte is a major hub in the South for American Airlines.
In Atlanta, where Delta Air Lines operates its main hub, more than 300 Sunday flights were cancelled. Parts of North Carolina were under a winter storm warning until Monday morning.
Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said to expect a “significant ice storm across portions of the central Carolinas”, including the Charlotte metropolitan area.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation said on Sunday that Interstate 95 was closed in both directions between Lumberton and Fayetteville due to low-hanging power lines. Freezing rain had been reported in the area, and transportation officials advised drivers to take a detour.
More than 250,000 customers were without power by late morning on Sunday, according to poweroutage.us.
Georgia was especially hard-hit, with nearly 110,000 outages. South Carolina had nearly 90,000 customers without power. The remaining outages were in Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.
In Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia, crews pre-treated roads, but officials still urged people to stay off them. The Tennessee Highway Patrol said in a tweet that some roads in East Tennessee were snow-covered and that police were working at the scenes of several accidents due to ice.
Current situation
Storm moves into the Northeast after heavy snow in the South. The system spawned tornadoes in Florida and knocked out power to nearly two lakh customers in the Southeast. It could bring a bottom or further of snow to western Pennsylvania and northern New York State.
