A major storm spread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and the coastal Carolinas on Wednesday after breaking snow records in Texas and Louisiana, treating the region to unaccustomed perils and wintertime joy.
Winter weather warnings were in effect for big cities like Jacksonville, Florida, which expected to see snow, sleet and accumulating ice into Wednesday, and Atlanta, where streets remained icy in the storm’s wake. The Jacksonville International Airport planned to remain closed until midday Wednesday. Schools canceled classes in many areas across at least eight states, and government offices were closed Wednesday.
Tallahassee woke to snow-dusted palms and icy streets Wednesday. Lina Rojas and her dachshund Petunia, who was wearing a vest and “pup gloves” on her paws, had never seen snow like this — far more than the dusting Florida’s capital got in 2018.
Dangerous below-freezing temperatures with even colder wind chills were settling in for much of the week across the Deep South, where at least three deaths have been attributed to the cold weather. A blast of Arctic air also plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze. The heavy snow and ice grounded hundreds of flights and classrooms were closed for more than a million students more accustomed to hurricane dismissals than snow days.
Even the interstate closes
The snow and ice also closed highways — including more than 100 miles of the nation’s southernmost interstate, I-10, in Louisiana and Florida. That included highways around Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lake Ponchartrain, where elevated roads and bridges are prone to freezing.
“Louisiana, if you can, just hang in there,” Gov. Jeff Landry said, warning that Tuesday’s “magical” snow day would dangerous Wednesday as conditions worsened.
“I would love to end this winter-weather event with the minimum amount of damage, and certainly no loss of life,” Landry said.
A live camera feed from the state’s Department of Transportation showed desolate stretches of interstates and highways Wednesday morning. Crews spread pallets of salt across elevated portions, and Landry thanked the state of Arkansas for sending snow plows, dump trucks, salt spreaders and semi trucks with brine tankers.
Dawn found highways and surface roads across most of Georgia deserted, with traffic cameras showing streetlights glinting off an icy glaze in many locations. The dull roar of rush hour freeway traffic was absent from suburban Atlanta. The danger of travel in a region generally unaccustomed to such weather was evident in Savannah, where it snowed overnight and a jackknifed truck closed part of the interchange between Interstate 16 and Interstate 95.
The airport in Charleston was closed, along with the massive 2½-mile Ravenel Bridge that carries about 100,000 vehicles a day between the city and areas up the coast. It could be a while before the bridge reopens — after an ice storm in 2014, crews discovered that water freezes on the bridge’s cables and then falls in windshield-shattering chunks as it thaws, so they have to wait for a full melt before traffic can return.
Who needs a beach when there’s snow
Some people took advantage of the Ravenel bridge’s steep overpasses, turning them into impromptu sled runs. And on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, children sledded down snow-covered sand dunes near where the Wright Brothers first took flight, while adults tried to navigate waist-high snow drifts that had piled up on the Kitty Hawk Pier.
The barrier islands received an unusual walloping — as much as nine inches (23 centimeters) in some parts, so much that the ferry system suspended service.
“It’s maybe once every 10 years that we get a good one like this,” said Ryan Thibodeau, 38, co-owner of Carolina Designs Realty, a vacation rental company.
