Snow, Freezing Rain Make for Messy Eve

Snow, freezing rain and deep cold across the country knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes in the South and made a deadly mess of the Christmas Eve getaway.

The snow continued to fall Thursday afternoon across New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware, with freezing rain and sleet from Texas to Virginia, and some of the worst ice in Mississippi and Alabama. The Pacific Northwest also got snow and freezing rain.

By nightfall, more than 4 inches of snow had fallen on southern New Jersey. Earlier in the day, Provincetown, Mass., got 8 inches.

The cold snap, which began over the weekend, was blamed for scores of traffic accidents across the country.

Weather-related accidents have killed at least 16 people in Texas, five in Virginia and two in Louisiana and North Carolina. In Alabama, icy roads have contributed to three deaths, and a homeless man died of exposure.

Slick highways also contributed to deaths this week in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.

Delays and cancellations were reported at many airports across the nation, including Baltimore; Dallas-Fort Worth; Charlotte, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Greenville, S.C.; and Memphis, Tenn. Many passengers spent the night in airports and bus terminals.

Jeff and Gayla Rury of Fletcher, Okla., were trying to get home to spend Christmas with their children after a trip to Orlando, Fla., but were stuck at the Memphis airport.

“They can’t open their presents until we get there,” Rury said. “They’re going to wait--I think.”

Tree limbs weighed down with ice snapped power lines and knocked out electricity in communities around the country. About 284,000 customers were without power in Virginia on Thursday, along with at least 180,000 in North Carolina, 128,000 in Louisiana, 112,000 in Tennessee and 125,200 in Mississippi. Nearly 12,000 customers were powerless in Arkansas.

Not everyone was unhappy with the weather. In Central Park, many New Yorkers could not even remember the last snowy Christmas. (It was 1976.)

“It looks like ice cream,” said 10-year-old Barbara Penny. “Vanilla.”