Final Wintry Insult Hits Ohio, Tennessee Valleys

A last blast of winter plastered the Ohio and Tennessee valleys with heavy, wet snow Tuesday, closing schools, sending cars skidding off highways and leaving thousands of people without electricity.

“It’s just been a lousy winter,” Connie Smith said while taking refuge in a coffee shop in downtown Indianapolis. “It’s been one of the worst we’ve had in a long time.”

On the last full day of winter, up to a foot of snow was possible in parts of Kentucky, with a chance of 10 inches in Indiana, the National Weather Service said. Six inches fell in parts of Tennessee and flurries blew through Georgia, which had damaging thunderstorms just the day before.

Indiana and Kentucky each blamed the weather for one traffic death. A car skidding in southern Indiana struck a bus carrying mentally handicapped adults, slightly injuring a dozen people.

The sticky snow also broke tree limbs, utility poles and power lines, knocking out electricity to 60,000 customers in Kentucky, as many as 43,000 in Indiana and 25,000 in Tennessee.

Kentucky opened its emergency operations center in Frankfort and promised help from the National Guard and state agencies. Ten Indiana counties declared snow emergencies and four of them closed county offices.

Many school districts emptied their classrooms at midday as roads became hazardous.

“We thought if we waited, it would only get worse,” said Larry Riggs, school superintendent in Jasper, Ind.

Overnight temperatures in the 30s were expected in Georgia, falling into the 20s by late Wednesday.