Road crews and National Guard troops yesterday freed hundreds of motorists stranded on North Carolina highways after a winter storm left two feet of snow in parts of the state.
The storm, the most severe in 72 years, left three people dead in South Carolina and one dead in North Carolina. There were no reports of fatalities in Virginia.
Cars and trucks were strewn along a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 85 from Durham north to the Virginia border, with many drivers insisted on staying with their vehicles to keep from being towed despite freezing temperatures. Dozens of truckers abandoned their vehicles, which were pulled out of ditches and off highway shoulders by tractors.
The governor of North Carolina, Mr Jim Hunt, declared a state of emergency at the height of the storm on Tuesday, activating National Guard troops in Humvees to help rescue motorists. Two National Guard Black Hawk helicopters were on standby.
"We've had the worst snowstorm in our history," he told ABC's Good Morning America. "We have about two feet of snow. It's up to that all across most of North Carolina." He said power was being restored after some 200,000 people were left in the dark on Tuesday when the storm hit. The states of Maryland and Virginia remained under states of emergency yesterday after the governors deployed the National Guard.
Across central North Carolina, utility crews repaired power lines, and dozens of shelters were opened for people left without heat as freezing temperatures settled over the state.
Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina is not expected to reopen until today. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the airport, where a record 20.3 ins of snow fell, eclipsing the 17.8 ins which fell on a single day in 1927.
A South Carolina emergency spokesman said yesterday three storm-related deaths were reported, including an 85-year-old woman who wandered out of her house and was found lying dead in the snow on Tuesday.