Snowstorm disrupts travel in southern US as blast of icy weather widens
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Students walking on the University of South Carolina campus as snow falls on Jan 31.
PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON – Travel misery was set to continue on Feb 1 as a powerful snowstorm blasted southern US states, bringing sub-zero temperatures to regions not accustomed to the deadly winter conditions.
The latest bout of extreme weather came about a week after a monster storm pummelled a wide swathe
Heavy snow fell in North Carolina and neighbouring states on Jan 31 as the authorities urged residents to stay off the roads and warned that oceanfront structures were threatened by the storm.
All of North and South Carolina, and portions of Georgia, eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as southern Virginia, were under a winter storm warning.
North Carolina saw 750 car crashes on Jan 31, the state’s Highway Patrol said.
Faust, North Carolina, recorded 37cm of snow, while West Critz in Virginia had 31.75cm. Harrisburg, Tennessee, received more than 23cm of accumulation.
In the North Carolina town of Cape Carteret, high winds sent thick snow blowing sideways, prompting the National Weather Service to warn that travel was “treacherous and potentially life-threatening especially if you become stranded”.
In dramatic footage released by the police in Gastonia, North Carolina, a train ploughed at high speed into a semi-truck that had gotten stuck on the tracks, crushing the vehicle. No one was hurt.
The Jan 31 storm forced more than 1,800 flight cancellations on Jan 31 and Feb 1 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, a major hub for American Airlines, data from the tracker FlightAware showed.
A 300-strong “snow team” was working to clear runways, taxiways, roads and sidewalks, the airport said.
More than 600 flights were cancelled at Atlanta’s international airport, the world’s busiest. About 50 flights in and out of Atlanta were cancelled in the early hours of Feb 1.
“An explosively deepening coastal cyclone will continue to bring moderate to heavy snow, high winds and possibly blizzard conditions for the Carolinas,” the National Weather Service said on Jan 31.
“An intense surge of Arctic air behind the coastal storm will send below freezing temperatures down towards South Florida by Sunday morning.”
Davis, West Virginia, recorded the lowest temperature in the lower 48 states on Jan 31 – a frigid minus 33 deg C.
About 156,000 customers remained without power early on Feb 1, mostly in the south, according to poweroutage.us, with Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana hardest hit.
In North Carolina, the National Park Service announced the closure of camping sites and some beaches at the Outer Banks, a series of barrier islands off the coast of the southern state that is vulnerable to storms.
It said oceanfront structures were threatened, and a section of highway that threads through its dunes was closed.
In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves said the US Army Corps of Engineers helped to install generators at critical sites, and the authorities were opening 79 shelters and warming centres across the state.
The freezing weather forced NASA to postpone a key fuelling test over the weekend of the 98m rocket that is on the Cape Canaveral launch pad in Florida.
That, in turn, is likely to push back by at least a couple of days a planned, manned moon fly-by slated for February. AFP
