By BEN FINLEY and JOHN RABY
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The latest in a long line of storms took direct aim at the East Coast on Wednesday, threatening to dump heavy snow and some ice across several states on winter-weary residents.
A storm that dropped snow in the Midwest spread across the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys, bringing more misery to some places just starting to clean up from deadly weekend floods.
Up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow was possible through Thursday night along the Atlantic Coast in Virginia and significant ice accumulations were forecast in eastern North Carolina, the National Weather Service said.
As thick snowflakes pelted Norfolk, Virginia, a line of shoppers snaked deep into a Harris Teeter grocery store, past loaves of bread and almost to the egg cooler. In the parking lot of a Total Wine store, college students in fraternity sweatshirts lugged a keg of beer to their car.
But on the sidewalks of the city’s historic Ghent neighborhood, there was an eerie quiet. A white-haired shih tzu named Sasha tramped delicately in newly fallen snow Wednesday afternoon.
“This is a little weird for her,” said her owner, Lotfi Hamdi, who manages a local grocery store and works as a freelance language interpreter.
Sasha isn’t alone in feeling out of sorts. The snow forecast for this city of 230,000 people on the Chesapeake Bay isn’t likely to break records. But the winter months sometimes pass with barely a dusting. Schools, universities and many businesses closed Wednesday throughout the Hampton Roads region and could remain shuttered into the weekend. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard reduced its operations.
“I love the snow, but it looks like this is a bit too much for us,” said Hamdi, already stocked up on milk and bread. “If it’s more than five inches, I think that’s a bit risky for us. Luckily I’m off for the next couple of days, which is just a beautiful coincidence.”
Virginia State Police reported 53 accidents by late Wednesday morning. Accidents also closed portions of Interstate 95 and I-85 near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Nearly 4,000 flights were canceled or delayed across the U.S., including more than 300 in and out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.com.
Elsewhere, a polar vortex sent temperatures plunging from Montana to southern Texas. The biggest batch of record cold temperatures are expected early Thursday and Friday, said weather service meteorologist Andrew Orrison.
Deja storm all over again
Virginia remained under a state of emergency that Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued for another storm on Feb. 10 that allowed the National Guard and state agencies to assist local governments. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein followed suit with an emergency declaration Tuesday. Both governors urged motorists to stay off the roads.
Officials warned residents of eastern North Carolina to brace for potential power outages as snow, sleet and freezing rain arrived with Stein warning “our greatest concerns remain power outages and road safety.”
Potential ice accumulations of up to one-half inch (1.3 centimeters) in places like Greenville and Goldsboro would cause tree branches to snap, said North Carolina Emergency Management Director Will Ray.
Officials said more than 1,200 crew members were clearing roads or getting set with hundreds of trucks.
Snow after floods
Weekend storms that pummeled the eastern U.S. killed at least 18 people, including 14 in Kentucky, where a half-foot (15 centimeters) or more of snow was expected starting Wednesday.
“This is a snowstorm in the middle of a natural disaster,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said.
In southern West Virginia, weekend floods killed three people in McDowell County, destroying roads and disrupting public water systems. Shelters remained open at churches and schools.
The incoming snowstorm “is going to severely hinder, if not halt, a lot of the efforts that we have,” said McDowell County Commissioner Michael Brooks, adding “we are doing our best to at least keep people warm.”
Bone-chilling cold
About 100 million people in the nation’s midsection were gripped by a cold wave, the weather service said. Hundreds of public school districts canceled classes or switched to online learning for a second day Wednesday in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.
Ashley Pippin, a spokeswoman for Special Olympics Kansas, is getting tired of the cold even as the group organizes a series of fund-raising polar plunges, including three this weekend. It is so cold firefighters might have to go out and break the ice.
“We’ve done it before,” Pippin said.
Hettinger, North Dakota, recorded a low temperature of minus 45 degrees (minus 42 Celsius) on Wednesday and had warmed to minus 13 (minus 25 Celsius) by middway.
Denver broke a 19-year-old record when it dipped to minus 6 (minus 21 Celsius). In Kansas City, Missouri, the forecast high Wednesday is 8 degrees (minus 13 Celsius), which would break the mark of 11 degrees (minus 11.6 Celsius) set in 1929. In San Antonio, Texas, wind chill readings could dip as low as minus 2 (minus 19 Celsius) early Thursday. .
Earlier this month, famous groundhog Punxsatawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter weather.
“I was thinking I’d like to choke him,” said Robin White Stevens of hard-hit Grundy, Virginia, whose challenges this winter have included falling on her hip while walking along icy ditch lines. “We can’t catch a break weatherwise. Snow, flood. It’s a mess around here.”
Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia. Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and Gary Robertson and Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
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