New cold snap adds urgency to winter storm recovery across the South

Glyn Alexander, 73, endured three days without electricity before deciding to leave her home in Belzoni, a small city in the Mississippi Delta. She was cozier Thursday at a local warming shelter, where a generator kept the indoor temperature at a balmy 82 F (28 C).

“Three days in the cold, sleeping in the cold, eating in the cold,” Alexander said. “I just couldn’t take the cold anymore.”

At least 85 people have died in areas affected by bitter cold from Texas to New Jersey. Roughly half the deaths were reported in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

The prolonged freeze left some residents increasingly desperate in a region unaccustomed to such conditions. Emergency dispatchers in Mississippi received calls from people running out of food and medications while stuck at home. In Tennessee, social workers coordinated with police and firefighters to check on residents who hadn't been heard from in days.

“No one really knew that it was going to be like this, or how bad,” said CJ Bynum, who used his Jeep to help drivers stranded along Interstate 55 in northern Mississippi, where 18-wheel trucks still lined the icy highway two days after traffic ground to a halt

Harriet Wallace, who works for a Nashville social services agency, said police and firefighters were visiting homes to check on older adults whose relatives couldn't reach them by phone. All were found alive, she said. For those without power who refused to leave, officers helped charge phones and get groceries.

“They are finding blankets and just sitting there with no TV, no power, nothing,” Wallace said. “Some are a little delirious.”

Major power outages persist

More than 260,000 homes and businesses in states hit by the winter storm had no electricity Wednesday evening, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us. The vast majority were in Mississippi and Tennessee, with roughly 95,000 each.

Nashville Electric Service said Thursday that 963 linemen were repairing damage after the storm snapped hundreds of power poles in the area. A utility vice president, Brent Baker, said Wednesday that full restoration could take until the weekend or longer.

Interstates 55 and 22 remained closed in northern Mississippi as emergency crews used tow trucks and snowplows to clear the highways.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said 650 National Guard troops were clearing fallen trees from roads and delivering meals, blankets and other supplies by truck and by helicopter. The Tennessee National Guard said about 170 soldiers and airmen were assisting with recovery efforts, including helping more than 200 people stranded in vehicles and homes and providing rides to nearly 300 emergency and health care workers.

Warming centers are open across Mississippi

Mississippi officials say it's the state’s worst winter storm since 1994. About 80 warming centers were opened across the state, known as one of the nation’s poorest. But for some communities, they weren't enough.

In Batesville, Mississippi, where most of the city’s 7,400 residents were without power Thursday, Mayor Hal Ferrell said officials were dealing with outages at nursing homes, a shortage of generators for shelters and ice-covered interstates that slowed deliveries.

“We’re just stymied with everything we’re trying to do,” Ferrell said.

Health experts warn that prolonged exposure to cold without heat poses serious risks, especially for young children, older adults and people with cardiovascular conditions.

“The body can handle cold temperatures briefly very well,” said Dr. Hans House, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Iowa, “but the prolonged exposure is a problem.”

As hypothermia sets in, the body shivers and reduces blood flow to hands and feet to preserve heat, House said, raising the risk of frostbite. As exposure continues, people can become sleepy and confused, and in severe cases the heart and lungs can fail.

Forecasters say the subfreezing weather will persist in the eastern U.S. into February and there's high chance of heavy snow in the Carolinas, Virginia and northeast Georgia this weekend, possibly up to a foot (30 centimeters) in parts of North Carolina. Snow is also possible along the East Coast from Maryland to Maine.

The National Weather Service said freezing rain was possible Thursday night in parts of Mississippi, and light snow showers could hit Nashville overnight Friday. Forecasters said the extreme cold and subzero wind chills (minus 18 C) remain the greatest danger.

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Thanawala reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Jonathan Mattise and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; and Sarah Brumfield in Washington contributed to this report.