Snow Clogs Roads, Cuts Off Power In Appalachians

Up to 4 feet of snow left thousands of people without power Wednesday in the central Appalachians and highways were clogged by ice, snow and snowbound cars and trucks.

States of emergency were declared in West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia, and National Guard troops helped people dig out in those states and eastern Kentucky.

“Since I can remember, I’ve never seen it like this. And I’ve lived here my whole life,” said Wanda Sturgill, 49, of Beckley.

Beckley had up to 32 inches of snow on the ground Wednesday and nearby Ghent had 42, the National Weather Service said. Just 60 miles away, and at an elevation 1,800 feet lower, Charleston only got rain.

“We’ll probably just stay in today,” said Lanell Spencer of Beckley. “We don’t have much choice.”

Mountainous areas of northeast Tennessee got up to 4 feet from the storm, which started Tuesday and had largely turned to rain along the coast on Wednesday.

North Carolina National Guard troops had to rescue 500 motorists who were snowbound beginning Tuesday along Interstate 40 in western North Carolina, and some travelers had to spend the night in their vehicles because no one could reach them. The highway, which connects the state to Tennessee, didn’t reopen until Wednesday afternoon.

Two traffic deaths in North Carolina were blamed on the storm, which started Tuesday.

In Virginia, one person died of an asthma attack while snowbound at home and two other deaths in traffic accidents were blamed on the weather.

One man in Tennessee was found dead of a heart attack in his truck parked along a road. And a 68-year-old man was killed when his barn - caked with 20 inches of snow - collapsed on him.

Highways in southern West Virginia were clogged by accidents and snow.

“No one’s left here in 24 hours,” trucker Jeff Devaul of Bowling Green, Ohio, said Wednesday at a Beckley truck stop near an access ramp to I-64 that was choked by snow and stuck trucks.

“I feel like I’m going to die in this place,” said Christy Bowman, 19, of Cincinnati, who had been at the same truck stop since Tuesday afternoon.

Power outages left more than 31,000 homes and businesses without lights Wednesday in North Carolina, down from a peak of more than 100,000, and at least 86,000 were blacked out in West Virginia.

Tree limbs weighted down by the snow continued falling onto power lines and utility repair crews had trouble keeping up, said Steve Volstad of Carolina Power & Light.

“The more they fix, the more they get nowhere,” Volstad said.

Outages also blacked out much of Bristol, Va., and the surrounding area along the Virginia-Tennessee line, as well as parts of the Harrisonburg area in the Shenandoah Valley. Widespread outages were reported in Tennessee.

Up to 4 feet of snow fell on Roan Mountain in Tennessee’s Carter County, where severe flooding just 2 weeks ago killed seven people. About 75 percent of the county had no power and it could be five days before service is restored said Sheriff John Henson.