A dangerous winter storm combining high winds and ice swept through parts of the US Southeast on Sunday knocking out power felling trees and fences and coating roads with a treacherous frigid glaze
Tens of thousands of customers were without power in Georgia North Carolina South Carolina and Florida Highway patrols reported hundreds of vehicle accidents and a tornado ripped through a trailer park in Florida More than 1200 Sunday flights at Charlotte Douglas International were cancelled more than 90 of the airports Sunday schedule according to the flight tracking service flightawarecom
Winter Storm Izzy dumped as much as 10 inches of snow in some areas of western North Carolina as the system moved across the southeastern US said Brian Hurley a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park Maryland
First Sgt Christopher Knox a North Carolina Highway Patrol spokesperson said that by mid-afternoon the agency had responded to 300 car crashes and nearly 800 calls for service Two people died Sunday when their car drove off the road and into trees in a median east of Raleigh The driver and passenger both 41-year-old South Carolina residents were pronounced dead at the scene of the single vehicle crash Knox said investigators believe the car was driving too fast for the conditions described as mixed winter precipitation
Durham police tweeted a photo of a tractor trailer that slid off the NC Highway 147 overpass in Durham The trucks cab appeared to have landed upright on Highway 15501 below while the trailer came down in a vertical position from the bridge to the highway below Police spokesperson Kammie Michael said the driver was stable with injuries that did not appear life threatening
Kristen Baker Morrows 6-year-old son made snow angels after their home in Crouse North Carolina got four inches of snow Sunday morning but she said they couldn’t stay outside long because of the uncomfortable wind chill
It took 30 to 45 minutes to get everything on for about 10 minutes in the snow but it was definitely worth it for him to get our pictures and make some memories said Morrow a 35-year- old registered nurse
Outages which had ballooned to a quarter million customers earlier in the day stood at around 130000 customers by late Sunday according to poweroutageus North Carolina was hardest hit peaking at some 90000 outages Parts of Georgia South Carolina Florida Virginia and Kentucky also lost power
The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado with 118 mph winds 190 kph struck southwest Florida The weather service said the tornado was on the ground for almost two miles 3 kilometers with a maximum path width of 125 yards 115 meters Thirty mobile homes were destroyed and 51 had major damage Three minor injuries were reported
Edward Murray 81 told the Naples Daily News that he was inside his mobile home Sunday morning when a tornado picked it up and tossed it on top of his neighbors home
Thats my house thats turned upside down he told the newspaper The tornado took me off my feet blew me toward the east wall and buried me under the sink refrigerator kitchen chairs and everything else
Murray and his daughter Cokie escaped unharmed crawling from the wreckage. I was so happy when I saw the sky Murray told the newspaper I said to the devil It’s not going to be today
Virginia State Police said traffic came to a standstill on Interstate 81 in Roanoke County for several hours Sunday afternoon after a tractor trailer jackknifed and the cab of the truck disconnected from the trailer in the northbound lanes Two additional accidents occurred in the traffic backup one with minor injuries Please stay off the roads if possible Begging again Hazardous conditions read a tweet from VDOTs Salem office
At Mountain Crossings a hikers outfitting store on the Appalachian Trail near Georgia’s Blood Mountain a handful of hikers were trekking up the mountain in the snow employee Julia Leveille said Sunday
We’re open but it’s kind of a mess up here she said by phone, A tree fell along the highway about a mile south of the store and crews were working to clear it she said
Despite the heavy snow and ice in the area several hikers had already started hiking from Georgia to Maine Leveille said
You’ve got to really like the snow for that because you’re heading north and into higher mountains and you could see some nasty storms she said
Most of the hikers who stopped in Sunday were ascending Blood Mountain on a day hike At 4458 feet 1359 meters its the highest peak on Georgia’s portion of the Appalachian Trail
In Tennessee there were multiple reports of abandoned and wrecked cars on snow covered roads
The storm system could cause hazardous driving conditions over a large portion of the eastern US through Monday as the wet roadways refreeze in southern states and the storm turns and moves northward through the Mid Atlantic states and New England
It’s a very expansive storm Hurley said A lot of real estate is going to get four to eight inches of snow and a lot more are also going to get to get some of that ice accumulation
New York City was expected to be spared most if not all of the snowfall but Long Island and Connecticut coastal areas were expecting gale conditions Upstate New York was projected to get hit with up to a foot of snow along with high winds
Six to 13 inches 15 to 33 centimeters of snow was expected in parts of east central Ohio and western Pennsylvania from Sunday afternoon