Tens of millions of residents from Georgia to New Jersey have embraced the ste waings and forecasted snow falls and have hunkered down as the brunt of the blizzard could dump 2 feet or more of snow in some areas.
Though snow started to fall in some areas on Friday, the worst of the mammoth storm was still yet to come, with strong winds and heavy snow expected to produce “life-threatening blizzard conditions” throughout the day Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. The Mid-Atlantic could potentially see serious coastal flooding while the Carolinas might see a half-inch of ice accumulate.
At least nine people have already died because of storm-related incidents across several states. Five deaths were reported in North Carolina. Four motorists died in car accidents when broached with treacherous traveling conditions. A child was killed in a separate accident along Interstate 77. State Highway Patrol Sgt. Michael Baker said the 4-year-old was restrained in a car seat and died as a result of the impact in a pickup truck one of his family members was driving.
In Teessee, a car slid off the roadway due to speed and slick road conditions, killing the driver and injuring a passenger, the Knox County sheriff’s department said. A woman was killed after the vehicle carrying her and her husband slid down a 300-foot embankment Wednesday night, Carter County Sheriff Dexter Lunceford. The woman’s husband was able to climb the embankment and call for help.
A man died in Kentucky Thursday after his car collided with a salt truck, state police said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene on state Route 92 in Whitley Country. A Virginia man died Friday after his car went off the snowy George Washington highway and slammed into a tree, Officer Leo Kosinski said.
By late Friday, Virginia State Police had reported 989 car crashes statewide since the storm started, and had assisted nearly 800 disabled vehicles, said Ken Schrad, a spokesman for the Virginia State Police Joint Information Center.
In Kentucky, Mike Edmonds was stuck at a truck stop Friday as snow piled up around him, not daring to venture his big rig out of the slick parking lot and onto an interstate strewn with wrecked vehicles.
"We've got trucks here that literally caot get out," Edmonds told the Associated Press. "We're spiing. It's not worth even getting out on the road."
Forecasters wa that much of the blizzard is still on its way. The heavier snow and wind gusts are expected to create blinding whiteout conditions once the storm joins up with a low pressure system off the coast, said Bruce Sullivan, a forecaster at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
Two feet or more of snowfall is forecast for Washington and Baltimore, and nearly as much for Philadelphia. New York City's expected total was upped Friday to a foot or more. But Sullivan said "the winds are going to be the real problem; that's when we'll see possible power outages."
The result could create snowdrifts 4 to 5 feet high, so even measuring it for records could be difficult, he said.
By evening, wet, heavy snow was falling in the capital, making downed power lines more likely, and yet many people remained on the roads, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said. "Find a safe place and stay there," she beseeched.
"They're slipping and sliding all over the place," said Kentucky State Police Trooper Lloyd Cochran — as soon as one wreck was cleared, other cars slammed into each other, causing gridlock for hours on interstate highways.
Conditions quickly became treacherous all along the path of the storm. Arkansas and Teessee got 8 inches; Kentucky got more than a foot, and states across the Deep South grappled with icy, snow-covered roads and power outages. Two toadoes arrived along with the snow in Mississippi.
The storm could easily cause more than $1 billion in damage, weather service director Louis Uccellini said.
Related Image
Michael Rainey got his face full of snow after tubing down the hill along Broad Street in Bristol, Teessee. (Earl Neikirk/Bristol Herald Courier via AP)
Even before the snow began to fall Friday afteoon, states of emergency were declared, lawmakers went home, and schools, govement offices and transit systems closed early from as far south as Georgia to as far north as New York City.
In Washington, the federal govement closed its offices at noon, and all mass transit was shutting down through Sunday. President Barack Obama, hunkering down at the White House, was one of many who stayed home.
"Find a safe place and stay there," Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser implored residents and visitors alike.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency Friday as forecasters predict up to 2 feet of snow in some parts of the state. Coastal flooding is also a major conce for beaches from Delaware up to Long Island. Christie urged motorists to stay off roadways in light of the storm.
Broadway's shows were still going on in New York, but as snow fell in Atlanta, people there were urged to stay home all weekend, rather than risk a repeat of the city's 2014 "icepocalypse," when a relatively mild winter storm caused days of commuter chaos.
More than 82 million Americans are expected to see at least one inch of snow in this storm. Around 47 million will see more than 6 inches, and 22 million will get more than a foot, Ryan Maue at WeatherBell Analytics said Friday.
About 7,600 flights were canceled Friday and Saturday — about 15 percent of the airlines' schedules, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware. They hope to be fully back in business by Sunday afteoon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.