Second dose of snow, ice turn South into slippery nightmare

Associated Press WriterRALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A deep freeze and a second dose of snow turned the South into a deadly, slippery nightmare Thursday, throwing a region unaccustomed to dealing with winter weather into near paralysis.

Hundreds of flights were canceled in Atlanta, the nation's busiest air hub, scores of Floridians took refuge in shelters and South Carolina's governor declared a state of emergency, activating the National Guard to help stranded motorists.

At least nine traffic fatalities have been blamed on the storm, which began Wednesday with several inches of snow and sleet stretching from Louisiana to Virginia.

An overnight freeze coated roads with ice, followed Thursday by more flurries expected to drop an additional 2 to 4 inches as far south as Georgia and leave a total of more than a foot on the ground in parts of North Carolina and Virginia.

The one-two punch came as a shock to Southerners who just a couple of weeks ago were bragging about 70-degree temperatures. Daffodils, crocuses and even cherry blossoms were tricked into believing spring had already arrived.

"What a change," said Susan Yeaman with the National Weather Service in Raleigh. "The weather pattern changed about a week ago, and it doesn't show any signs of changing back."

That change apparently caught some off guard. Royce Fuoco was using a plastic rake to shovel his driveway in Wake Forest, N.C., wishing he'd listened to his mother-in-law in New York over the holidays when she offered him a shovel.

"It's been two years since we've gotten snow," he said. "Why bother getting one now. I figured if all else fails I've got my trusty green leaf rake."

South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, who had activated 100 National Guard troops Wednesday, declared a state of emergency Thursday. Most of the 64,000 state employees were told to stay home Thursday. Police in North Carolina responded to more than 900 accidents.

At Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, where 5 inches of snow accumulated, thousands of passengers were stuck Thursday after more than 500 flights were canceled. Some arriving planes waited two hours to get to a gate while departing aircraft queued up to be deiced.

After waiting eight hours on the runway to take off for Florida, John Pickitt deplaned Thursday and dragged his two children to the line at the car rental counter.

"By the end, the lavatory by where we were sitting was getting pretty ripe," said Pickitt, who decided to drive the 12 hours to Fort Lauderdale. "The Gameboy ran out of batteries, so that was a real emergency."

Outside Atlanta, traffic into the city was backed up for more than 20 miles on Interstate 20 after two tractor-trailers spun out of control Thursday morning.

Floridians saw some rare flurries Thursday in the Panhandle cities of Pensacola and Marianna. The weather service issued a hard freeze warning for north Florida and predicted record cold temperatures for South Florida.

Linda Lanier, director of the I.M. Sulzbacher Homeless Center in Jacksonville, said 331 homeless people filled the center's 278 beds and available floor space.

"It is a blessing to have someplace to stay out of the cold," said John David Wright, 36, who was staying at the center Thursday. "I was sleeping outside on the concrete."

Snow and sleet in Alabama fell within about 100 miles of the beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, and a freeze warning was posted along the coast for Thursday.

In South Carolina, two women died when their cars skidded on ice and were struck by oncoming traffic, and a man was hit by a tractor-trailer and killed while he tried to help a stranded motorist. Three deaths in Mississippi and two in suburban Atlanta also were blamed on slick roads. In North Carolina, a motorist died shortly before noon Thursday when a tractor-trailer collided with a vehicle on Interstate 77 near Charlotte.

Schools and business across the region were canceled, extending the Christmas and New Year's break. But there was no rest for utility workers.

There were spotty power outages in the region, including 30,000 South Carolina Electric & Gas customers who lost electricity because of sleet and freezing rain.

Raleigh resident Martha Hess was one person who wasn't cursing the snow. While her prized greens and crocus bulbs sat under protective layers of mulch and straw, she sat in her kitchen eating homemade soup made from leftover holiday turkey.

"It's not driving me insane, because I'm a former upstate New Yorker," said Hess. "So it's in sync with my biological clock. ... Now I can get in the right hibernation pattern and be healthy."

------

EDITOR'S NOTE: Allen G. Breed is the AP's Southeast regional writer, based in Raleigh.