TOP U.S. STORIES Deep South gears up for brutal weather

January 28, 2014 -- Updated 1704 GMT (0104 HKT)
The Deep South will plunge into a deep freeze again this week, this time with ice and snow expected to fall all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. FULL STORY | DANGEROUS COLD  Video | SNOWFLAKES | 40 BELOW?  Video | PHOTOS

 

The Deep South faces a deep freeze

By Michael Pearson and Holly Yan, CNN
January 28, 2014 -- Updated 1638 GMT (0038 HKT)
Watch this video

Cold air pummels parts of the country

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • 140 million people are under some sort of winter advisory
  • Nearly 3,000 flights have been canceled, FlightAware says
  • Storm was downgraded in Houston but is still worrisome across South
  • "This town is shutting down" on Tuesday, New Orleans cab driver says
(CNN) -- A winter storm is bringing the threat of snow and ice to a broad swath of the South, where snow plows and salt trucks are nearly as rare as bikinis in a Minnesota winter.
And while Northerners laugh at their Southern friends' panic over a dusting of snow, the threat is real: With few resources to battle snow and ice, public works crews may have a difficult time keeping up with any significant accumulation.
Add to that the fact that millions of Southern drivers aren't used to driving on snow or ice, and things could get tricky fast.
"I'm asking everybody, I know it's going to be pretty if we get snow; it's monumental; it's great," Montgomery County, Alabama, Commissioner Reed Ingram told CNN affiliate WAKA. "But do not get out there and ride in it."
Snowflakes like you've never seen them before
It's not just the South that will be shuddering. Midwesterners and others more accustomed to bitter weather will also be freezing.
All told, about 140 million people in 34 states are under some sort of winter weather warning or advisory, from snow and ice to bitterly cold wind chills, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.
And, of course, you can bet air travel will be a mess across the country.
Already Tuesday, airlines had canceled nearly 3,000 flights, with hundreds each at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Houston's George Bush International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks cancellations due to both weather and mechanical problems.
Here's what to expect across the country:
Texas
Sleet and freezing rain began falling early Tuesday in East Texas, along with Louisiana the first area to be affected by the winter storm.
But what had been a winter storm warning in the Houston area was downgraded early Tuesday to a winter weather advisory.
Still, Houston shut down all all public services not related to public safety, and the city's school district -- the state's largest -- was also closed.
Louisiana
New Orleans and its suburbs could get half an inch of snow and ice by Tuesday evening, forecasters said. Parishes farther north could see 3 inches, with temperatures plunging into the single digits on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
"This town is shutting down" on Tuesday, New Orleans cab driver August Delaney said Monday. "Some bridges are going to shut down. Schools are closed. We are not going to put our kids on school buses."
Photos: Freezing temperatures sweep U.S. Photos: Freezing temperatures sweep U.S.
Wind chills hit 40 below
Rare snow phenomenon rolls up in Ohio
More freezing temperatures!
Mayor Mitch Landrieu declared a state of emergency and warned residents to remember what happened when temperatures dipped toward the freezing mark less than a week ago.
"We had bridges that were frozen over," he said. "We had accidents on those bridges, a fairly large pileup on the Green Bridge. Sometime not long ago, when they had a similar event, there were a thousand crashes, and there were fatalities, and we want to make sure that we avoid all of that."
Mississippi
State officials say that 4 inches of snow could fall in south-central Mississippi, and the Gulf Coast could see three-quarters of an inch.
Robert Latham, the state's emergency management director, warned residents to expect power outages as well.
"We're looking at a part of the state that has a large number of pine trees," Latham said. "I can tell you that as ice accumulates on pine trees, limbs will break. Trees will fall. Power will be out."
Alabama
Schools in Montgomery, the state capital, and Birmingham, Alabama's largest city, closed Tuesday.
In Montgomery, as much as 3 inches of snow may fall. Gov. Robert Bentley on Monday declared a state of emergency for all Alabama counties and activated the Alabama national Guard to be on stand-by.
He also delayed a special election to fill three state House vacancies, WAKA reported.
And grocery stores were selling out of some items, including canned goods, batteries and water, the station said.
"I'm getting everything I need to do today, because it is going to be dangerous out there," Dominique Macon told WAKA as she stocked up Monday on essentials. "The roads are going to be slippery, and stuff is going on."
Georgia
Atlanta, a city not accustomed to flurries, will almost certainly get some snow Tuesday: as much as 2 inches, forecasters say.
City of Atlanta schools canceled after-school activities Tuesday. The city has spent more than $1 million on snow-removal equipment since 2011, city Public Works Director Richard Mendoza told CNN affiliate WSB. That's when a storm that Northern cities would have shrugged off in a day shut much of the city for nearly a week.
"You prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Mendoza said. "Based on the current forecast, we anticipate having up to 40 crew members on 12-hour shifts."
Farther south, in Macon, where about 3 inches of snow could fall, Robins Air Force Base shut down for all but mission-essential personnel, and students were told to stay home on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In nearby Monroe County, CNN affiliate WMAZ reported, public works crews were giving their winter weather fleet the once-over in prepation for the storm.
It's not an onerous task. In a sign of just how rare this sort of weather is, there's just one salt spreader that doesn't get used much: the 1978 two-ton Ford F-800 has been driven 30,000 miles.
"It's old, but it's in good shape. It's ready to go," Roads Superintendent Sid Banks said Tuesday. "We've done this several times."
The truck won't try to cover all 450 miles of roadway in the county of 25,000 residents but will focus its payload on the most vulnerable areas, he said. "We just do the places that might have black ice, and then we do the bridges."
The county has two primary drivers assigned to the truck who will rotate duties until the job is done, Banks said. "We just stay on duty until the disaster is over, until it's clear and safe."
Though the county has no plows, Banks said that the threat of snow did not concern him.
"I've been here 20 years, been through several ice storms, and we've always been able to handle it with the equipment that we have," he said. "I might get fooled, but the snow is not a tremendous deal. We can deal with snow a lot better than we can ice."
Farther north
Much of the northern Plains, Midwest and Northeast will probably shiver through daytime high temperatures 10 to 30 degrees below normal through Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
Chicago's temperature Tuesday could reach 3 degrees, but the wind chill in the Windy City will probably make it feel like minus-30 degrees.
In Wisconsin, the state Department of Transportation urged people to avoid driving if possible. If they must drive, they should carry a fully charged cell phone, have at least half a tank of gasoline and tell somebody where they're going.
In Milwaukee, two motorists seconded that advice.
"It's going to be pure ice. It's all fluffy and light snow like this, and it's going to melt down -- going to be a mess," Gary Lukowitz told CNN affiliate WITI.
"Even though you see the streets are plowed and it's still slippery out there, still a lot of wet snow on the ground, still freezing and cars are still slipping around," Adam Bernstein said.
And Minnesota authorities advised everyone to stay off the roads in the southern and western parts of the state.
CNN's Tom Watkins, Chad Myers, Sean Morris, Dave Hennen, Joe Sutton, Martin Savidge and Jareen Imam contributed to this report.

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