(Washington) Transportation disruptions were expected to continue on Sunday in the United States, with a powerful snowstorm hitting the south of the country and bringing negative temperatures to regions not accustomed to these extreme winter conditions.
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This new weather event comes about a week after a devastating storm that devastated much of the United States, killing more than 100 people and leaving many communities struggling with snow and ice.
Heavy snow fell across North Carolina and neighboring states on Saturday. Authorities urged residents to stay at home and warned that coastal buildings were threatened by the storm.
All of North and South Carolina, as well as portions of Georgia, eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, were placed on a winter storm alert.
In North Carolina, traffic police recorded some 750 accidents on Saturday.
Faust, North Carolina, recorded 37 cm of snow, while West Critz, Virginia received 32 cm. In Harrisburg, Tennessee, more than 9 inches of snow fell.
In the town of Cape Carteret, North Carolina, strong winds swept the thick snow falling almost horizontally. The National Weather Service warned that travel there was “perilous and potentially life-threatening, especially if immobilized.”
Impressive images released by the Gastonia (North Carolina) police show a train ramming a semi-trailer stopped on the tracks at high speed, completely crushing it. No one was hurt.
Canceled flights
The weekend storm caused the cancellation of more than 1,800 flights Saturday and Sunday at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (North Carolina), a major hub for American Airlines, according to FlightAware. A snow removal team of 300 people was mobilized to clear the runways and roads, the airport said on Saturday.
More than 600 flights were canceled Saturday at Atlanta International Airport, the busiest in the world. About 50 flights to and from Atlanta were canceled in the early hours of Sunday.
“An explosively strengthening coastal low will continue to bring moderate to heavy snowfall, high winds and possible blizzard conditions to the Carolinas,” the National Weather Service warned Saturday. “An intense surge of arctic air behind the coastal storm will cause temperatures to drop below freezing toward South Florida on Sunday morning. »
Davis, West Virginia, recorded the lowest temperature on Saturday: -33°C.
Around 156,000 customers were still without power on Sunday, mainly in the south of the country, according to the poweroutage.us website. Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana are the most affected states.
In North Carolina, the National Park Service announced the closure of campgrounds and some beaches on the Outer Banks, a set of barrier islands off the state’s coast that are vulnerable to storms. Beachfront structures are threatened and a portion of the highway crossing the dunes was closed, according to a press release.
In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves announced that the military had helped install generators at critical sites and that officials were opening 79 shelters across the state.
The freezing cold forced NASA, the American space agency, to postpone a major fuel filling test, planned for this weekend, of the 98-meter rocket located on the Cape Canaveral launch pad in Florida.
This risks postponing the manned flight around the Moon planned for next month by at least two days.
