At a Glance
- The storm is responsible for three deaths in North Carolina and one in Tennessee.
- A trucker remains missing after a tractor trailer ran off of U.S. 70 and into the Neuse River near Kinston, North Carolina.
- Over 60,000 customers in the Southeast were without electricity Tuesday morning.
- Drivers were stranded for up to 12 hours on a stretch of interstate near Bristol, Virginia.
Winter Storm Diego unleashed its wrath on the Southeast over the weekend, leaving at least four dead, one missing and tens of thousands still without power across the region Tuesday.
Hundreds of schools in North Carolina remained closed for the second day in a row and Georgia government workers and schools announced delayed openings with the threat of black ice on the roads.
The storm is responsible for three deaths in North Carolina, including a man who was killed when a tree fell on his pickup truck in Matthews, North Carolina, Officer Tim Aycock, a spokesman for the police department told weather.com.
“My message is simple: If conditions in your area are still dangerous, don’t take the risk,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday. “Sit tight and wait for the sunshine and safety.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly 32,000 customers had no electricity in North Carolina, according to PowerOutage.us. More than 14,000 were cut off in South Carolina and nearly 10,000 in Virginia. At one point Sunday the total number exceeded 400,000.
Diego was a traffic nightmare for motorists stranded for up to 12 hours Sunday on I-81 near Bristol, Virginia, the Bristol Herald-Courrier reported. Bristol officials requested assistance from the National Guard to help clear the roadway. The highway has since cleared.
North Carolina
Diego dumped more than 34 inches of snow on Mount Mitchell in northeastern North Carolina, the highest total of the storm.
An 82-year-old woman living at home on hospice care in Haywood County, North Carolina, died when a power outage stopped her oxygen tank from working.
Yadkin County Emergency Services Director Keith Vestal said a truck driver died Sunday while attempting to free his rig after it became stuck in heavy snow on Interstate 77. The man reportedly suffered a heart attack while shoveling and later died at an area hospital.
Divers continued to search the Neuse River in Kinston, North Carolina, for the driver of a semitrailer truck that ran off of U.S. 70 and into the river early Sunday, Kinston.com reported.
Many other state and county roads were iced or snowed over in much of North Carolina. Gov. Cooper warned that the wet, slushy mixture on roads could refreeze overnight.
"This storm dropped staggering amounts of snow, ice and rain across our state," Gov. Cooper said Monday. "A year's worth of snowfall, or more, fell in some places in little more than a day."
Troopers with the Highway Patrol have responded to 2,300 collisions and 1,571 calls for service since the start of the storm.
Members of the National Guard who were activated to help during the storm spent part of Sunday helping move a family from a snowed-in house in Caldwell County, south of Lenoir. Among photos the Guard posted on social media was one of a soldier carrying a baby down a snowy road swaddled in extra blankets.
Earlier today a Soldier with the 883rd Eng CO assisted the @NCEmergency Management All Hazard Response Team, dispatched to Caldwell County, transport a baby to Hudson, N.C. Well done!! #WinterStormDiego #AlwaysThere
National Guard Lt. Col. Matthew DeVivo said the baby is OK, and the family was taken to stay with relatives.
Guard members also aided an ambulance stuck in the snow in Burke County, helping an elderly patient get to the hospital.
The North Carolina Zoo closed Sunday and said it would be closed through Tuesday.
Awake from his slumber and makkng tracks in the snow - Nikita! #polarbear #nczoo #diego #winterstorm
Virginia
More than 2 feet of snow fell on White Top, Virginia, as of Monday morning.
State Police said they responded to 1,177 traffic crashes from Sunday morning until 10 a.m on Monday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. They also said they had responded to 1,589 calls for disabled vehicles before noon Monday.
Four state police cruisers were damaged when other vehicles lost control on slick roads and hit the patrol cars.
Gov. Ralph Northam had declared a state of emergency Saturday “I am declaring a state of emergency to ensure localities and communities have appropriate assistance and to coordinate state response to possible snow and ice accumulations, transportation issues, and potential power outages," Northam said.
West Virginia
The northern edge of the storm pounded the southern part of West Virginia.
Officials in White Sulphur Springs were surprised to see about 18 inches of snow,metronews.com reported.
“We knew we were going to get snow, but we didn’t expect to get that much snow and it continued to snow and snow and snow and we just had to deal with what we got,” City Manager Lloyd Haynes said.
“I was hoping it would stop as soon as possible so we could catch up (Sunday) because it was pretty hard to stay ahead of it, it was coming down so fast and so hard.”
Josie, an English retriever plays in the snow as her owners, Dawn and Mark Lundblad walk a snow-covered Sandy Cove Drive, Sunday, December 9, 2018, in Morganton, North Carolina.
(AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)Tennessee
The storm is responsible for at least one death in Tennessee.
William James Taylor, 58 of Robertson, Alabama, was struck and killed Sunday when he exited his disabled tractor-trailer on Interstate 81 near Kingsport, Tennessee. According to a press release, Taylor was walking away from his truck when Scott Russell Register, 42, of Hughesville, Maryland, hit a patch of slush and snow, swerved and hit Taylor on the shoulder of the highway.
South Carolina
Ice was the problem in the Upstate of South Carolina, where crews in Spartanburg County were on the road before the sun rose to begin repairing hundreds of downed power lines Sunday morning, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reported.
Dozens of cars were stranded along roadways, the Highway Patrol said.
Oklahoma
More than 10 inches of snow fell on parts of Oklahoma, leading to some traffic snarls.
Ahead of the storm, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for all 77 of the state's counties.
Arkansas
The Bentonville Christmas Parade, which was also scheduled for Saturday, has been moved to Dec. 15, KFSM-TV reported.
The station also said Fayetteville School District said the basketball tournament games scheduled for Saturday have been canceled.
Texas
Winter Storm Diego dumped at least 10.5 inches of snow on Lubbock, making it the second-snowiest December day on record in the Panhandle city.
@LubbockPolice say there have been fewer traffic problems than expected, thanked Lubbock drivers for taking the weather seriously. Watch out for black ice as temperatures lower to freezing tonight.
“That gets relevant when you realize the historical, monthly record for Lubbock in December is 11 inches. That is significant,” Lubbock City Manager Jarrett Atkinson said.
The heavy snow contributed to some slide-offs and traffic issues, but the Lubbock Police Department said that "there were fewer traffic problems than expected."
California
Before pushing east, heavy snow from Diego closed a stretch of Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley Thursday near the Tejon Pass, Caltrans tweeted.
The transportation department said cars were sliding on the roadways near the Lebec and Grapevine areas. I-5 is the main route between Southern and Northern California, and the shutdown caused backups for miles.
https://weather.com/news/news/2018-12-09-diego-snow-impacts-carolinas-georgia-texas
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