© Cody Wellons/iReportAtlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood filled up quickly with snow Sunday night.
The Southern storm left a trail of treacherous conditions from Arkansas to the Atlantic, closing schools and government offices and contributing to the traffic deaths of at least three people.
Southern states were crippled -- covered in sheets of ice that formed on roads, pavements, cars and atop the crunchy snow.
Meanwhile, with memories still fresh of a monster Christmas weekend storm, Northern states again braced for heavy accumulations of snow and potential blizzard conditions. The National Weather Service predicted 5 to 8 inches of snow in the Philadelphia area, 4 inches or more in northern New Jersey and 2 to 6 inches in southern Delaware from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday morning.
It will be all snow as well for the Interstate 95 corridor Tuesday night and Wednesday, with 8 to 14 inches predicted for the New York City area and 9 to 15 inches for Boston.
At least 30 states were under some sort of winter storm watch or warning Tuesday, and Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas were declared states of emergencies.
Normally bustling cities such as Atlanta, Birmingham, Alabama, and Charlotte, North Carolina, were silenced by winter, with the crunch of snow boots the only sound in some neighborhoods.
Conditions are not likely to improve anytime soon as an Arctic low slides into the South, bringing with it plunging temperatures. Lows are predicted in the teens in many parts of the region and in single digits in higher elevations.
Roads resembled ice-skating rinks in Atlanta and parts of major interstates were closed. Atlanta police were dealing with so many accidents that the department announced it would only respond to those with injuries and provided an online form for drivers to report others.
The Georgia Department of Transportation warned that "no one should be driving north of Macon," which is in the middle of the state.
The worst problem was along Atlanta's normally jammed southern perimeter blocked by semi-trucks that were stuck in the ice. At midday Tuesday, a 15-mile stretch of I-285 remained closed. Several truckers fell asleep in their stuck rigs, and in some cases, Georgia authorities had to call drives on citizens band radio to wake them up, said Jill Goldberg, a Transportation Department spokeswoman.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest, arriving passengers decided to spend the night rather than risk the drive home, sharing space with stranded passengers who had no choice. Airport authorities handed out blankets and amenity kits, but they did little to ease frustrations.
Four out of five runways in Atlanta were operational Tuesday morning. Airport spokesman John Kennedy said the fifth runway could be operational later Tuesday, but slick roads were a bigger problem, preventing many airline and airport employees from driving in to work.
Delta Air Lines canceled 1,900 flights Monday and another 1,400 Tuesday and was keeping a close eye on the Northeast for late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
AirTran Airways spokesman Christopher White said the airline would begin operations "with a greatly reduced flight schedule" and warned that flights heading to the Northeast would likely be affected at least through Wednesday.
Michael Bernardo, an AirTran command center manager, said many of the same issues hampering passengers are also affecting airline workers.
Another problem is the icy conditions at the gates. While most of the runways are open, ice at the gates makes working conditions treacherous for those servicing the aircraft.
Both Delta and AirTran were offering one-time flight changes with no fees for a limited period.
In other parts of the South:
One person died Monday in a weather-related traffic accident in Alabama as parts of the state got 6 to 10 inches of snow, said state Emergency Management spokeswoman Yasamie Richardson.
Two people died Sunday and Monday in traffic accidents in Louisiana. Police cited icy road conditions as contributing factors.
North Carolina and South Carolina both expected freezing rain and sleet Tuesday. Mountainous areas have already seen up to 18 inches of snowfall. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford ordered state offices in 24 counties closed due to weather, said Derrec Becker of the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation reported extremely hazardous conditions in the mountainous east, but ice and snow also were causing problems in other parts of the state.
About 2,300 homes in Louisiana and 4,000 in Mississippi had lost power, according to authorities in those states, and power had been restored to most of them. Nearly 2,000 Georgia customers had lost power, according to Georgia Electric Membership Corp., and Georgia Power Co. reported 3,000 customers out of power.
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