NORFOLK, Va. — The latest in a long line of winter storms is taking direct aim at the East Coast, threatening to dump heavy snow and some ice in several states.
A storm that dropped snow in the Midwest was spreading across the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys on Wednesday, 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 along the Atlantic Coast in Virginia and significant ice accumulations were forecast in eastern North Carolina, the National Weather Service said.
Elsewhere, a polar vortex took over from Montana to southern Texas. Bismarck, North Dakota, hit minus 39 degrees (minus 39.4 C) early Tuesday, breaking a record for the date set in 1910. The biggest batch of record cold temperatures are likely to hit early Thursday and Friday, said weather service meteorologist Andrew Orrison.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein declared a state of emergency Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday’s ice-and-snow mix.
“What we fear the most are road conditions and loss of power due to ice accumulation,” Stein said Tuesday on the social platform X. “So folks need to be prepared.”
Virginia remained under a similar declaration that Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued for another storm on Feb. 10 that allowed the National Guard and state agencies to assist local governments.
Both Stein and Youngkin asked motorists to stay off roads.
Weekend storms that pummeled the eastern U.S. killed at least 17 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 Tuesday.
In southern West Virginia, weekend floods killed three people in McDowell County, destroyed roads and severed public water systems. Thousands remained without power Tuesday night. Shelters were open at multiple churches and schools while more than a dozen locations were serving hot meals.
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. “We want to ensure that we are doing our best to at least keep people warm.”
More than 80 million people in the nation’s midsection were in the midst of gripping cold, 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.
Some relief was in sight with readings expected to climb above freezing by the weekend.
Stephanie Hatzenbuhler’s family has been contending with the cold in many ways on their farm and ranch west of Mandan, North Dakota, from their calving operation, to vehicles and equipment starting without issues, to their coal-fired furnace keeping up.
“There’s always something new to learn and something new to experience. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve done this, so you have to adapt,” said Hatzenbuhler, who called the cold spell “the Siberian experience.”
Slick roads caused minor injuries in the crash of a tractor-trailer carrying eggs on the Will Rogers Turnpike in northeastern Oklahoma on Tuesday.
“Expensive cargo right now,” the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said on X.
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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia. Associated Press writers from across the U.S. contributed to this report.