Snowstorm Heads North, Strands Drivers : Flood Warnings Issued; Cold Wave Shatters 42 Records in South

A spring snowstorm that battered the Deep South pushed into the Ohio Valley and central Appalachians on Saturday, creating near-blizzard conditions and making travel hazardous, while a cold wave on the heels of the storm stung the Southeast.

In southeastern Ohio, snow fell at the rate of an inch an hour. Heavy rain fell farther east, prompting flood warnings and watches in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Vermont and southern New England.

In Wayne, N.J., at the confluence of the Pompton and Passaic rivers, officials called for the evacuation of people living in 300 homes in the low-lying area. The rivers were expected to rise as high as four feet above flood stage.

Five inches of rain drenched Slide Mountain, N.Y., and nearly two inches soaked New York City by Saturday afternoon, accompanied by winds gusting 40 to 50 m.p.h.

The storm, which closed roads and schools and knocked out power to thousands of homes in the South on Friday, spread snow Saturday over western New York state, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, over eastern Ohio and Kentucky and over West Virginia, Maryland and Tennessee.

Gusty winds caused near-blizzard conditions in eastern Kentucky, where as much as 36 inches of snow buried higher elevations.

More than 24 inches of snow was reported in Welch, W.Va., where about 3,400 families were without electricity since Friday night.

A 20-mile stretch of Interstate 40 in North Carolina near the Tennessee border was closed overnight. About 1,000 motorists were stranded between Asheville, N.C., and the Tennessee line on the highway, where truckers set up a citizens band hookup that helped a diabetic child to get medical attention.

As much as 16 inches of snow buried western Sullivan County, Tenn., and 14 inches fell in Zanesville and Youngstown, Ohio--six inches of that coming in a six-hour period Saturday morning. Up to eight inches was on the ground in western Pennsylvania.

Cold following the eastern storms again stung the Southeast early Saturday, with at least 42 record low temperatures set in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana. Apalachicola, Fla., set a record low for the fifth straight day.