The winter storm that dumped snow in most of North Carolina, nearly a foot in some areas, by Thursday morning is being blamed for the deaths of two people.
The first fatal vehicle accident related to the storm claimed the lives of a driver and passenger who ran off the road in Washington County, Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday morning.
The car ran off Newland Road and overturned into a canal between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thursday morning, WITN reported.
Weather forecasters and police warned of miserable driving conditions, and temperatures hovered in the mid-teens before dawn. Freezing temperatures dominated the day Thursday.
A state of emergency declared by Cooper statewide on Tuesday remained in effect until further notice.
Schools across the area were closed for a second day. Courthouses were dark, too.
Chatham County declared a state of emergency Thursday morning. The county had 5,786 people without power at 7 a.m. Thursday, Chatham County Emergency Management Director Steve Newton said.
Roads
The snow that fell all day, and into the night in some areas, overwhelmed the ability of highway crews to keep lanes drivable.
The state Department of Transportation reported Thursday morning that interstates were covered or partly covered with snow and ice, and smaller highways and secondary roads were almost all covered.
Frigid temperatures again Thursday night were going to make roads hazardous again on Friday, too, because water from melting that does happen during the afternoon is likely to form black ice, the weather service warned.
Police, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers were attending to cars and trucks that had run into trouble on the slick highways.
The N.C. Highway Patrol on Wednesday reported nearly 1,600 collisions since midnight Tuesday.
The latest road conditions can be found at drivenc.gov.
Power outages
Duke Energy Progress reported about 430 outages statewide affecting 10,300 customers Thursday morning. That included about 5,200 in Chatham County, 1,500 in Lee County, 1,400 in Durham County, 1,000 in Wake County and 350 in Orange County.
Statewide, the company said its crews were handling 430 power outages affecting about 10,300 customers as the sun came up.
How much snow?
A foot of snow fell in parts of northern Chatham County, said meteorologist Don Schwenneker of ABC11. Nine inches piled up in Siler City, and places in Roxboro and Louisburg got 10 inches.
Five inches fell at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, breaking the record for Jan. 17 of 4 inches set in 1946, ABC11’s Chris Hohmann said.
Temperatures a bit above freezing Thursday, in the upper 30s, and in the 50s on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will help melt the snow, but overnight lows below freezing until Sunday will limit that and make black ice a problem in the mornings, weather service meteorologist James Morrow said.
“Most of the trees will lose a lot” of their snow under Thursday’s bright sunshine, Morrow said, but snow may remain on the ground into next week in areas that got covered with 9-12 inches.
Friday morning likely will pose a black-ice threat on all but the most heavily traveled roads, Morrow said. “Anything that’s wet after dark” from melting snow has that potential, he said.
Air travel
Raleigh-Durham International Airport said crews had cleared both of the main runways, and they were open to aircraft.
For more information on conditions at RDU, go to www.rdu.com/weather.