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The heaviest snow, possibly up to a foot,
was predicted in Arkansas near the Missouri
state line, northern Tennessee near the
Kentucky and Virginia borders and western
North Carolina, according to the National
Weather Service. Mark Rose, a forecaster
with the weather service's Nashville office,
called it "a major winter storm for this
part of the country - heck, for any part of
it."
The weather service warned that icy roads
and downed power lines were likely after
snow changed to freezing rain Friday night
over western Tennessee and northeastern
Arkansas.
With temperatures expected to remain
below freezing through the weekend, a fresh
coating of ice was possible over the area,
much of it along the Interstate 40 corridor.
In mountainous western North Carolina,
I-26 near Asheville and I-40 near Black
Mountain were shut down Friday night after
snow and icy roads caused multiple wrecks.
Troopers said they expected the highways to
remain closed until early Saturday.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen declared a
state of emergency and state workers were
sent home around lunch ahead of the
worsening weather. Many businesses followed
suit.
States of emergency were also declared in
Arkansas and parts of Virginia and schools
closed early in northern Alabama.
In western Kentucky, shoppers at the
Murray Home & Auto store snatched up every
available sled in anticipation of a heavy
snow on Friday, said store manager Chris
Burgess. Others grabbed shovels, kerosene
heaters and chain saws, mindful of another
winter storm a year ago that caused
widespread power outages in the region.
"They're trying to be prepared this
time," Burgess said.
The weather service was predicting
snowfall of as much as 6 to 10 inches
through Saturday afternoon in south central
Kentucky near the Tennessee border.
Snowfall in the Nashville area reached 4
to 6 inches before tapering off early
Saturday, said weather service meteorologist
Darrell Massie. But he cautioned that roads
remained "snowpacked and pretty dangerous."
Precipitation was also subsiding in
Memphis with up to 2 inches of snow and
sleet, but the weather service said areas
north of Memphis had seen 6 to 10 inches of
snow. Most flights at Memphis International
Airport were canceled, and Graceland stopped
giving tours of the Elvis Presley home at
midmorning Friday.
Temperatures were forecast to remain
below freezing through the weekend, posing a
threat of icy highways and falling tree
limbs.
General contractor Tom Baldwin, 59, said
he cut loose members of his crew at a
downtown Nashville building at noon to give
them time to get home safely.
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"I want to tell people to have some
common sense out there," he said. "Only
because you have big four-wheel-drive
doesn't make you stop any quicker."
The steady snowfall didn't keep Jason
Martin from delivering beer to Lonnie's
Western Room in Nashville's Printer's Alley.
"When it snows, everyone goes out and
buys milk and eggs - and beer," joked
Martin, 37. "We're like the Pony Express."
Meanwhile, states in the storm's wake
were uncovering from inches of snow and
caked ice that fouled electricity to
hundreds of thousands of customers. Thirteen
inches of snow in the northern Texas
Panhandle, where nearly all of I-40 from the
Texas-Oklahoma line to New Mexico was closed
for part of the day.
More than 164,000 homes and businesses in
Oklahoma were without power Friday evening,
officials said. The outages were caused by a
massive storm that left up to a half-inch of
ice on trees and power lines.
Gov. Brad Henry requested a federal
disaster declaration for all 77 Oklahoma
counties.
A spokeswoman for Public Service Co. of
Oklahoma, Andrea Chancellor, said it could
be five days before electricity is restored
to all customers.
The storm has been blamed for the death
of a 70-year-old Oklahoma woman in a propane
explosion. The woman and her husband had
apparently been using propane heaters to
warm their house in Ada after the storm
disrupted their electric service, Assistant
Fire Chief Robby Johnson said. The woman,
who was not identified, died and her husband
was injured when a propane tank exploded
Friday morning.
---
Associated Press writers Tim Talley in
Oklahoma City, Bruce Schreiner in
Louisville, Joyce Garcia in Chicago, and
Kristin M. Hall, Travis Loller and Lucas L.
Johnson II in Nashville contributed to this
report.
[Associated
Press; By ERIK SCHELZIG]
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
All rights reserved. This material may not
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