Even the Outer Banks can’t escape winter’s fury
NAGS HEAD, N.C. (AP) – A rare snowstorm hit the Outer Banks Thursday and was expected to drop as much as 10 inches – the first significant snowfall for the North Carolina coast in 13 years. Dare County, which includes most of the Outer Banks, closed schools and suspended trash collection until Monday after the first 3 inches fell, and the state was sending in snow plows because the county doesn’t have any of its own.
Visibility was at best 200 yards in Buxton, said Bob Eakes, owner of the Red Drum Tackle Shop, and the 5 to 6 inches of snow was drifting as deep as 2 feet, he said.
“It’s snowing its absolute fanny off,” Eakes said.
The frigid air, which has been hurtling in from Canada for more than a week, froze most of the country east of the Rocky Mountains, and schools were closed in several states.
Minneapolis and Fargo, N.D., weren’t expected to reach zero degrees Thursday, and temperatures were forecast to remain below freezing even as far south as Atlanta. Wind chill warnings and advisories were issued for more than two dozen states.
The Outer Banks are usually immune to such chills because it is insulated by relatively warm water, said Roy Pringle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Morehead City.
But this storm was expected to bring winds of up to 30 mph, resulting in near-blizzard conditions at times at the coast, Pringle said. The coast’s last snowfall of any consequence came on Christmas 1989.
Ace Hardware in Nags Head had about 50 shoppers stocking up on storm essentials Wednesday.
“We’ve sold all the snow shovels we had, which was about five,” said manager Renee Thompson, adding that here, the shovels are usually used for sand.
The snow arrived with bitterly cold temperatures statewide, with highs forecast for the teens and 20s Thursday. Schools were closed across the state and the commute for workers was slowed and, in some cases, delayed. Slick conditions forced police to close the I-277 loop around downtown Charlotte and the Independence Boulevard expressway.
State troopers had responded to 1,100 accidents by 9:45 a.m., said spokeswoman Renee Hoffman.
Some transplanted Northerners said inexperienced drivers were causing more problems than the snow.
“This is like bikini weather for me. I’m from Buffalo,” said contractor Rick Bainbridge, who left New York state to get away from bad weather.
In South Carolina, 9 inches of snow fell in Clover, near the North Carolina line.
“It started in November when we got the ice, and it will keep going into March,” Ellis said.
Elsewhere around the country, the cold weather was suspected of causing a major highway bridge in Kansas City, Mo., to buckle Wednesday, temporarily cutting off traffic between downtown and the northern metropolitan area. The bridge remained closed Thursday morning.
In Wisconsin, about 100 people filled a homeless shelter in Milwaukee, where the high was expected to be 8 degrees. About 850 customers lost electricity because the cold apparently caused a power line to contract. About 150 miles to the north, Marathon County closed its outdoor skating rinks.
Cliff Bacon, whose job is to retrieve carts from a grocery store parking lot, said he had meant to buy long johns earlier this week but forgot.
“I’m kind of regretting that now,” said Bacon, of Wausau.
Florida was braced for more freezing temperatures in all but the southern coast Thursday night. Gov. Jeb Bush signed an emergency order Wednesday to eliminate the weight limit on trucks so growers could harvest as much fruit as possible and get it to market before it was damaged by the cold.
“This is going to be a tough one,” said Terence McElroy, a spokesman for the Florida Agriculture Department.
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