Forecasts of snow and ice as far south as Georgia have put a big part of southeastern US on an emergency preparedness footing as shoppers scoured store shelves for storm supplies, and crews raced to treat highways and roads as a major winter storm approached from the Midwest.
In Virginia, where a blizzard left thousands of motorists trapped on clogged highways earlier this month, outgoing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and urged people to take the approaching storm seriously.
In North Carolina, some store shelves were stripped bare of essentials including bread and milk.
Photo: AP
Elsewhere, trucks began spraying a briny mixture on hundreds of kilometers of interstates and other roads to prevent icing across the region.
Travis Wagler said he had not seen such a run on supplies at his Abbeville, South Carolina, hardware store in at least two winters.
“We’re selling everything you might expect: sleds, but also salt, shovels and firewood,” Wagler said from Abbeville Hardware on Friday.
That region faced amid predictions of 0.6cm of ice or more on trees and power lines, which could lead to days without electricity.
“People are worried,” Wagler said.
Parts of Tennessee could get as much as 15cm of snow, forecasters said, and northern Mississippi and the Tennessee Valley region of Alabama could receive light snow accumulations.
With lows of minus-6°C forecast across a wide area, any precipitation could freeze, making driving difficult if not hazardous.
By Friday, the fast-moving storm had already dropped heavy snow across a large swath of the Midwest, where travel conditions deteriorated and scores of schools closed or moved to online instruction.
The storm, after its expected weekend dip into the southeast, was then expected to head into the northeast while dropping snow, sleet and rain around the densely populated eastern seaboard.
A winter storm watch extended from just north of metro Atlanta to Arkansas in the west and Pennsylvania in the north, covering parts of 10 states including Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.
Travel problems could extend into metro Atlanta, where about 5cm of snow brought traffic to a slip-sliding halt in 2014, an event still known as “Snowmaggedon.”
At Dawsonville Hardware about 95km north of Atlanta, owner Dwight Gilleland said he was already out of heaters by noon Friday and only had five bags of salt and sand left.
“I think the [COVID-19] pandemic has made people more anxious than normal,” he said.
The US National Weather Service said from 5cm to 13cm of snow could fall as far south as northeast Georgia from yesterday evening through today, and possible power outages and travel problems could be exacerbated by any coating of ice — and winds gusting to 55kph
“Hopefully, the storm will underdeliver, but it could overdeliver. We just don’t know,” said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp as he announced storm preparations.
He was taking no chances as he declared a state of emergency and crews began treating major roads and highways in north Georgia.
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