Storm Pummels North Carolina Coast : Weather: Wind and waves destroy sand dunes protecting oceanfront homes. The rest of the East Coast prepares for the wintry onslaught.

A fierce Atlantic storm Saturday lashed North Carolina’s Outer Banks with strong winds and large waves that crashed through sand dunes shielding oceanfront homes. Residents fought back with sandbags and bulldozers.

At least one home--already heavily damaged by previous storms--was knocked down by waves, authorities said.

The rest of the East Coast braced for the wintry onslaught, less than two weeks after another storm pummeled the region.

In the Midwest, freezing rain extended from Montana to Minnesota. Low-temperature records fell in dozens of cities.

The Atlantic storm blasted the shoreline with 50 m.p.h. gusts.

Waves reaching 14 feet broke through dunes in at least four places on Pea Island in the Outer Banks, Dare County’s sheriff said. The dunes had been only partially rebuilt since the Halloween storm washed much of the protective barrier of sand away.

As the storm churned, Outer Banks residents deployed bulldozers and laid out sandbags where dunes had shielded their homes until late last month.

Gary Oliver, owner of Outer Banks Pier in Nags Head, N.C., ordered 25 dump-truck loads of sand to protect the fishing pier.

In Kitty Hawk, N. C., where the roiling ocean stopped just short of a road, Town Manager Robert Nicholl said police and firefighters were exhausted after 10 days of working around the clock to clear streets of sand, debris and water.

A house south of Nags Head was toppled Saturday, officials said. It had been condemned because of previous storm damage. Other damage was limited to minor ocean overwashes in Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk.

The bad weather sent fishermen and other tourists packing, said Glenda Stafford, manager of Bubba’s Too restaurant in Hatteras Village, N.C.

The storm was off the southeast coast of North Carolina on Saturday night and was slowly heading north. It was expected to be off the coast of Delaware tonight.

Stormy weather racked nerves in other vulnerable coastal areas.

“Even along the Chesapeake Bay, the dunes are pretty much gone,” said Dewey Watson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Norfolk, Va.

In New Jersey’s Cape May County, workers rebuilt sand dunes damaged during the previous storm and warned residents not to leave their homes unprotected.

The Atlantic storm was caused by a strong low pressure system off the South Carolina coast, the weather service said.

Meanwhile, three inches of snow fell in North Carolina’s mountains.

Freezing rain turned many North Dakota roads into sheets of ice Saturday, and residents in the eastern part of the state were advised not to travel.

Peoria, Ill., posted its sixth straight day of record cold, with the early morning mercury dipping to 9 degrees. A 95-year-old record fell in Champaign, Ill., where the temperature also was 9, far below the 19-degree mark set in 1896.

Arkansas was freezing early Saturday. The temperature in Fayetteville dipped to a record low of 15 degrees.

Temperatures dropped to record lows in West Virginia as well. Morgantown recorded 17 degrees.

The storm forecast included slim prospects of rain reaching southern West Virginia, the area of the state hardest hit by wildfires. More than 1,000 fires have scorched 337,000 acres in the Appalachian region since Oct. 26.