U.S.

Still Shivering From Deadly Cold, South Awaits More

By RICHARD FAUSSET
A man froze to death near an abandoned shopping center in South Memphis, Tenn. The state had 18 weather-related deaths. Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal 
ATLANTA — The freezing winter weather that has gripped much of the South this week has been responsible for record low temperatures and at least 31 deaths, and officials across the region were bracing Friday for potential snow and ice moving in from the West.
In Tennessee, 18 weather-related deaths were confirmed this week: Nine people died of hypothermia, three from fires and five from auto accidents. A 67-year-old man in Hickman County, near Nashville, died when he was unable to get to his dialysis treatment, said Dean Flener, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
In Virginia, eight people have died since Monday, most of them in car accidents.
In Kentucky, the deaths of four people were weather related, though a spokesman for Kentucky Emergency Management said he was unsure how they had died. But a Cincinnati television station reported that two Northern Kentucky men died while shoveling snow, which the American Heart Association says can heighten the risk of heart attack.
In North Carolina, a woman died in Hertford County on Monday night when she lost control of her car, state officials said.
The severe weather began late last weekend with a large snow and ice storm, followed by a mass of arctic air that arrived midweek and sent temperatures plummeting to unheard-of lows in some areas.
In Frankfort, Ky., the temperature dropped to minus 21 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 29 Celsius, the coldest Feb. 20 on record. Columbia, S.C., had a record-low 12, said Brendon Rubin-Oster, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
Record lows were reported in many other locales in the Midwest, Northeast and South, from Newark, N.J., to Key West, Fla.
The new storm is expected to produce snow and other precipitation from the Rockies to the Northeast. The National Weather Service has issued winter storm warnings and weather advisories from Missouri and Arkansas to Pennsylvania.
“It’s going to lead to a mess,” Mr. Rubin-Oster said.
That is likely to mean more woes for the hard-hit South, where states of emergency declared early this week remained in effect in Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.
Mr. Flener said that in Tennessee, the temperature might climb above freezing on Saturday, with one to three inches of rain. But that, along with melting snow and ice, may increase the risk of flash flooding in some areas. The state has swift-water rescue teams at the ready, he said.
“When all of that snow and ice that’s up in the hills and mountains starts running down, it could get very dangerous,” Mr. Flener said.
The weather has already forced Virginia to go to unusual lengths. On Thursday, pilots with the Virginia Army National Guard flew to tiny Tangier Island, in Chesapeake Bay, in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter carrying food, mail and medical supplies. The island is normally supplied by boats, but they could not reach the island this week because of the icy conditions.
Elsewhere in the South, changes in daily routine have been less drastic. Many major thoroughfares have been cleared of ice and snow, but rural roads and cul-de-sacs are still treacherous. Road conditions have caused many school districts to close all week.
That posed a challenge for Liz Hill, 48, a mother of two in Lexington, Ky. Ms. Hill said it had been a week of exhorting her children to complete the snow-day work packets their school sent out.
Her refrain, she said, has been: “Don’t play on the Internet. Do your homework.”