A powerful snowstorm battered southern US states on Saturday, snarling travel and bringing sub-zero temperatures as deadly weather intensified in regions unaccustomed to extreme winter conditions.
The latest misery came about a week after a monster storm pummelled a wide swathe of the United States, killing more than 100 people and leaving many communities still struggling to dig out from snow and ice.
Heavy snow fell across North Carolina and neighbouring states on Saturday, as authorities urged residents to stay off the roads and warned that oceanfront structures were under threat from the storm.
All of North and South Carolina, along with parts of Georgia, eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as southern Virginia, were placed under winter storm warnings.
North Carolina recorded 750 road crashes on Saturday, according to the highway patrol.
Faust, North Carolina, reported 14.5 inches (37 cm) of snow, while West Critz, Virginia, received 12.5 inches. Harrisburg, Tennessee, saw more than nine inches of accumulation.
In the town of Cape Carteret, high winds blew thick snow sideways, prompting the National Weather Service to warn that travel was “treacherous and potentially life-threatening, especially if you become stranded”.
Dramatic footage released by Gastonia police in North Carolina showed a train ploughing at high speed into a lorry that had become stuck on railway tracks, crushing the vehicle. No one was injured.
Saturday’s storm forced more than 1,000 flight cancellations at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, a major hub for American Airlines. A 300-strong “snow team” was working to clear runways, taxiways, roads and pavements, airport officials said.
More than 600 flights were cancelled at Atlanta’s international airport, the world’s busiest.
“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.
“An intense surge of Arctic air behind the coastal storm will send below-freezing temperatures as far south as Florida by Sunday morning.”
Davis, West Virginia, recorded the lowest temperature in the lower 48 states on Saturday, plunging to minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 33 Celsius).
Nearly 200,000 customers remained without power on Saturday, mostly in southern states, according to poweroutage. US, with Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana hardest hit.
In North Carolina, the National Park Service announced the closure of campgrounds and some beaches in the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands off the state’s coast that are particularly vulnerable to storms.
Officials warned that oceanfront structures were at risk, while a section of highway running through the dunes was closed.
In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves said the US Army Corps of Engineers had helped install generators at critical facilities, and authorities were opening 79 shelters and warming centres across the state.
The freezing conditions also forced NASA to postpone a key rocket-fuelling test over the weekend for the 322-foot (98-metre) launch vehicle at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The delay is likely to push back by at least several days a planned crewed Moon flyby scheduled for next month.
