Terry Prather / The Ledger Independent via AP
A wet winter storm, bringing dangerous sheets of ice, snow and plummeting temperatures, was barreling east Sunday after wreaking havoc in western parts of the the country, with one emergency official calling it a 'historic ice event.'
The storm that started in Washington state hit Texas hard on Saturday causing, event cancellations, travel hindrances and power outages.
NBC Dallas Fort Worth listed almost 50 weekend holiday events that had been cancelled or postponed across the state, including Sunday's 44th annual Dallas Marathon, which was expected to draw 25,000 runners, many of whom had trained for months. The same weather system also forced the cancellation the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, which had been expected to include 20,000 competitors.
Instead of running, work crews on Sunday were attempting to clear roads and Dallas Fort Worth International airport runways, and tractor-trailers remained stuck on highways, thwarting efforts to salt the slippery roads, according to NBC DFW.
Four hundred flights remained grounded Sunday at Dallas Fort Worth International airport, according to airport officials.
According to NBC DFW, more than 900 flights in and out of the airport were cancelled Sunday, but the airport assured that they had made progress on Saturday night, thinning the amount of stranded customers from 3,300 to about 2,100.
Texas utility provider Oncor also had lower numbers to report of people in the dark. At the storm's peak on Friday, 270,000 were without power, but as of Sunday morning, that number was slashed to 40,000, according to Oncor. Numerous shelters were set up across the state in churches and community centers, according to NBC DFW.
Just as Texas started to emerge from the brunt of the storm, the Midwest and Northeast plunged into bitter cold, which preempted the same conditions that plagued the west on Friday and Saturday.
In Chicago, people started flooding into warming centers Saturday night as wind chills dropped below zero, according to NBC Chicago.
'Thank God we have somewhere to go in the cold weather, somewhere we can take advantage of. The cold weather is so bad it's dangerous and I have kids,' Obed Morales, who was staying in a warming center because his heater was broken, told NBC Chicago.
Some parts of Illinois already got a foot of snow, and Chicago would get 1 to 3 inches on Sunday, according to The Weather Channel.
Residents in parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee also woke up to snow and ice on Sunday. Bob Nations Jr., director of the emergency operations command center for the Memphis area told bberitaa.blogspot.com that multi-vehicle crashes were already on the rise early Sunday.
'I'm not afraid of the ice and snow, I'm afraid of the other drivers who don't know how to drive in it,' said Memphis resident Sam Chafetz.
In Virginia, state Emergency Management spokeswoman Laura Southard said the storm had the potential to be a 'historic ice event.'
'This forecast is very concerning to us,' Southard said. 'I've worked multiple disasters, but I've never worked an ice storm with a forecast like this. It's just really important for everybody to take extra precautions.'
Other areas of the country that could expect precipitation in the form of snow or freezing rain Sunday were the Middle Missouri Valley into the Great Lakes, the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, the Mid Atlantic and southern New England, according to the National Weather Service.
Mississippi, the Central Gulf Coast and the Tennessee Valley were all expected to dodge snowfall but could experience heavy, cold rain, the NWS predicted.
Residents in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Baltimore were warned to be careful on the roads, as they could expect their first major snow accumulation of the season Sunday night, according to The Weather Channel. But the snow is expected to change to rain overnight, the Weather Channel said, making the morning commute a messy one.
In the even colder areas of New England and upstate New York, even a slight snowfall could create Monday morning problems as it changes to freezing rain and slippery sheets of ice, according to The Weather Channel.
And the areas that can expect the most snow buildup - of 2 to 5 inches - are eastern Nebraska across Iowa, southern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, according to the Weather Channel.
'What's happening across most of the country is we're getting a very early taste of winter,' Mike Muscher, a National Weather Service meteorologist told Reuters. 'This is something you'd typically see in January or February,' he said.
The storm is expected to move out to the Atlantic on Monday night, according to the National Weather Service.
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Posted by Unknown on Sunday, December 8, 2013 - Rating: 4.5
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