ATLANTA — Flight cancellations piled up and state officials warned of continuing dangerous roads Saturday in the wake of a winter storm that closed schools and disrupted travel across parts of the South.
Major airports, including those in Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., continued to report disruptions Saturday as a storm that brought biting cold and wet snow to the region was moving out to sea off the East Coast. Temperatures were expected to plunge after sundown Saturday, raising the risk that melting snow will refreeze, turning roadways treacherous.
Major roads were mostly clear across the South, but few ventured out. NBA’s Atlanta Hawks postponed their home game scheduled Saturday afternoon against the Houston Rockets.
At major airports, flights were operating, but airlines were already piling on new cancellations and delays after Friday’s weather slowed airline travel to a crawl. By Saturday afternoon, about 1,000 flights in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport had been canceled or delayed, according to tracking software FlightAware.
Sarah Waithera Wanyoike, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, was trying for a second day to fly out of the world’s busiest airport Saturday. Wanyoike arrived before sunrise Friday to catch an Ethiopian Airlines flight on the way to her job in Zimbabwe.
The plane was boarded after a delay on Friday but never left, discharging passengers back to the gate after taxiing around for six hours. Wanyoike likened her abortive trip to a “hostage situation,” saying her luggage was stuck on the plane and she dared not try to go home because she was told to be back at the gate before dawn Saturday.
“People slept with their babies on the floors last night,” Wanyoike said.
Delta Air Lines, the largest carrier at the Atlanta airport, said it was “working to recover,” saying cancellations would be worst among morning flights because of crews and airplanes that weren’t where they were supposed to be after the airline canceled 1,100 flights Friday.
The storm brought heavy snow and slicked roads across much of Texas and Oklahoma before moving east. Arkansas and North Carolina mobilized National Guard troops for tasks such as helping stranded motorists, and governors in multiple states declared states of emergency. School was canceled Friday for millions of children from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina.
The storm piled up more than a year’s worth of snowfall in some cities.
Associated Press writers Amy reported from Atlanta, Finley from Norfolk, Va. AP reporters Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tenn.; Kate Brumback in Atlanta; Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Ga.; Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, N.C.; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City; Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia; Olivia Diaz in Richmond, Va.; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C.; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Wa., contributed to this report.
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