Atlanta: Flight cancellations piled up and state officials warned of continuing dangerous roads on Saturday in the wake of a winter storm that closed schools and disrupted travel across parts of the southern US.
A storm that brought biting cold and wet snow to the South was moving out to sea off the East Coast on Saturday, leaving behind a forecast for snow showers in the Appalachian Mountains and New England. But temperatures are expected to plunge after sundown Saturday in the South, raising the risk that melting snow will refreeze, turning roadways treacherously glazed with ice.
“I definitely don’t think everything’s going to completely melt,” said Scott Carroll, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Atlanta. “Especially the secondary roads will probably still have some slush on them.
Major roads were mostly clear, but few ventured out early Saturday. The Atlanta Hawks postponed the pro basketball game they were supposed to host Saturday afternoon against the Houston Rockets, citing icy conditions.
Major airports, including Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, continued to report disruptions. While flights were operating, airlines cancelled and delayed more flights after Friday’s weather slowed airline travel to a crawl. By Saturday afternoon, about 1,000 flights in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were cancelled or delayed, according to tracking software FlightAware.
Sarah Waithera Wanyoike, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, was starting her second day at Atlanta’s airport on Saturday. Wanyoike arrived at the world’s busiest airport before sunrise Friday to catch an Ethiopian Airlines flight, on the way to her job in Zimbabwe.
The plane boarded after a delay on Friday, but never left, discharging passengers back to the gate after taxiing around and never taking off for six hours. Wanyoike said her luggage remained stuck on the plane and she dared not try to go home because she was told to be back at the gate before dawn Saturday.
“People slept with their babies on the floors last night,” Wanyoike said.
Delta Air Lines, the largest carrier at the Atlanta airport, said late Friday that it was “working to recover” on Saturday, saying cancellations would be worst among morning flights because of crews and airplanes that weren’t where they were supposed to be after the airline cancelled 1,100 flights on Friday.
Meanwhile, the city of Richmond, Virginia, lifted its boil-water advisory late Saturday morning, nearly a week after Monday’s snow storm had cut power and caused a malfunction to the city’s water system.
Mayor Danny Avula said lab tests confirmed that Richmond’s water was safe to drink, adding that boil-water advisories had been lifted for some surrounding counties as well.
The temporary halting of the water system affected more than 200,000 people, some of whom lacked water in their homes because of diminished pressure.
Freezing rain pushed up electricity outages above 110,000 in Georgia on Friday night, but most power was restored Saturday. The National Weather Service reported small amounts of ice accumulation around Atlanta from the freezing rain.
Parts of mountainous western North Carolina saw as much as 4.5 inches of snow in a 24-hour period that ended at 7 am Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. And parts of middle Tennessee saw nearly 6 inches of snow by Saturday morning.
Earlier this week the storm brought heavy snow and slick roads to much of Texas and Oklahoma before moving east. Arkansas and North Carolina mobilised National Guard troops for tasks such as helping stranded motorists, and governors declared states of emergency.
Businesses and churches started digging out from under several inches of snow that fell on Nashville, Tennessee, in order to reopen for the weekend.
At Judah Temple of Praise, church members on Saturday shovelled, salted and blew snow off the sidewalks and the parking lot in advance of services on Sunday.
“We’re not going to use the excuse of a parking lot covered in snow to not show up and praise our God tomorrow,” said elder Myyah Lockhart.
Andy Atkins, co-owner of the Bad Luck Burger Club food truck in east Nashville, brushed off picnic tables with a broom and shovelled snow off the sidewalk in front of his business. He closed the truck on Friday but hoped that customers would show up on Saturday.
“Having a day off is good for the soul, but is bad for the pocket, you know,” said Atkins.
School was cancelled on Friday for millions of children from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina, giving them a rare snow day. Officials in northern Alabama on Saturday said schools could remain closed Monday if ice doesn’t melt off secondary roads.
The storm piled up more than a year’s worth of snowfall on some cities.
As much as a foot fell in parts of Arkansas, and there were reports of nearly 10 inches in Little Rock, which averages 3.8 inches a year.
More than 7 inches fell at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee. The city usually sees 2.7 inches a year.
The storm dumped as much as 7 inches in some spots in central Oklahoma and northern Texas.
The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes ventures south into the US, Europe and Asia.
Some experts say such events are happening more frequently, paradoxically, because of a warming world.
The cold snap coincided with rare January wildfires tearing through the Los Angeles area.
