Scammer
Banned
Kids in several Southern states will wake up Monday, don heavy winter wear, head outside and shriek in delight as drivers bemoan hampered travel conditions in the air and on the ground.
[video]http://cnn.com/video/?/video/weather/2011/01/10/von.southeast.winter.weather.cnn[/video]
- Kids in several southern states will wake up Monday, don heavy winter wear, head outside and shriek in delight as drivers bemoan hampered travel conditions in the air and on the ground.
A major winter storm system is rolling across the southeastern United States, bringing snow and ice to areas that don't normally see heavy winter precipitation.
The wintry weather extends from northeast Texas through the Carolinas, according to CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen. The northern regions of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas can expect heavy snow, while ice storms are expected to affect the southern regions of those states, he said.
Forecasters expect freezing rain in those states, possibly by Monday morning. Hennen said below-freezing temperatures through Tuesday could leave trees and power lines across the South with a heavy coating of ice, which could cause numerous long-duration power outages.
Many southerners were surprised to see the rapid onslaught of snow. At least four inches of snow fell in just a couple of hours in Atlanta, CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera said.
Chuck Meadows dodged "slipping and sliding" vehicles on Interstate 20 on his way home from watching an NFL game.
"It was traumatic ... the near misses," Meadows, a native Atlantan, said Monday morning. "A large pickup slid toward me on the highway before I decided to get off the highway. There was a hill that a number of people got stuck on."
Soon afterward, Meadows himself got stuck near his subdivision. He, like many others in the city, ended up ditching his car in the snow and walking home.
Farther north, in Kennesaw, Georgia, Sarah DeRoch watched a pickup truck get stuck on her cul-de-sac.
"It made the mistake of stopping in the snow," said DeRoch, a native of the Chicago area who, like her husband, is used to heavy snowfall. "We went out to give it some pointers" before it was eventually towed by another truck, she said.
Meanwhile, her daughter Gwyneth was bursting with anticipation of a canceled school day.
"She's been asking me every five minutes, 'Did they close the schools?'" DeRoch said.
In addition to schools, hundreds of flights were canceled as the Southeast's winter storm began to have a domino effect on travel across the country.
AirTran Airways canceled 270 flights for Monday, most of them heading into Atlanta, spokesman Christopher White said. There only will be a handful of arrivals and departures, he said.
Anthony Black, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, said the airline has planned "approximately 1,400 Delta and Delta Connection flight cancellations system-wide Monday as the storm is at its peak -- approximately 25% of all planned flights for the day."
On Sunday, American Airlines reported 100 flights in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth were canceled. That's about 20% of American's flights. Its American Eagle carrier had canceled 180 flights.
"That sounds ominous, but in the big picture it could be far worse," spokesman Tim Smith said. He added later that the snow was not as bad as was forecast, and that Dallas "really dodged a bullet."
Atlantic Southeast Airlines spokesman Jarek Beem said the storm had forced a number of cancellations Sunday through Tuesday. He declined to provide a specific number.
In preparation for wintry conditions, governors in Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia declared states of emergency, according to the governor's office in Alabama.
"We face a serious storm that will have an impact all across Alabama," Gov. Bob Riley said in a statement. He advised motorists to stay the roads.
Meanwhile, snow moved into the Northeast, but the region was spared a repeat of the late December blizzard that virtually shut down large cities such as New York and Philadelphia. Emergency management officials were able to quickly recover from the comparably light dusting of snow that began blanketing the region Friday.
DeRoch, the Georgia mother, said she's bracing for the freezing rain on Monday. Despite the icy conditions, she said there's one advantage to the sub-freezing temperatures:
"If the power goes out, you can put your refrigerated stuff outside."
