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‘Historical’ winter storm kills nine in South

Traffic crawls along Independence Boulevard on Wednesday as a storm hits Charlotte, N.C., on its way to Washington, D.C. (Associated Press)
David Zucchino Los Angeles Times
Traffic crawls along Independence Boulevard on Wednesday as a storm hits Charlotte, N.C., on its way to Washington, D.C. (Associated Press)

DURHAM, N.C. – Much of the South found itself in the nastiness of a winter storm Wednesday, with needle-like freezing rain, growing piles of snow and biting temperatures that turned roads into a slippery mess, cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people and grounded thousands of flights.

The storm, which spread from Texas to the Carolinas, was described in near-apocalyptic terms by the National Weather Service, which labeled the weather “an event of historical proportions.”

By afternoon, much of the Deep South was caked in a dangerous armor of glistening ice and snow. At least nine highway deaths were reported and more than 350,000 customers were without electricity in Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana – and the outages were expected to grow.

In North Carolina, sections of five major interstate highways were gridlocked and motorists were abandoning their cars – scenes that appeared to repeat the traffic debacle that gripped Atlanta two weeks ago when thousands of vehicles were left on snow-slick roads.

As the situation worsened into the evening, officials warned drivers to stay with their cars or the vehicles would be towed at their expense. Authorities said abandoned vehicles were blocking snowplows and emergency crews, and people trying to walk home were at risk of being hit by cars sliding off icy roads.

Schools and many businesses were closed, but commuters leaving work at midday to beat the storm clogged roads leading out of Charlotte and Raleigh. The weather paralyzed major urban areas in Charlotte, the Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, and the Triad area of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point.

In South Carolina, GOP Gov. Nikki Haley asked President Barack Obama to declare the state a federal disaster area.

The storm is far from spent. It headed northward throughout the day, and was expected to bring from 6 inches to more than a foot of snow today as it moves through Washington, D.C., the New York metropolitan area and into New England by the end of the week.