A Christmas Eve ‘travel nightmare’: Snow, flooding, maybe tornadoes

A nasty winter storm slammed the eastern United States on Christmas Eve, pushing drivers off the roads and threatening to spoil the plans of holiday travellers and last-minute shoppers in a season already dampened by the coronavirus.

The snow and rain extended from Atlanta to Buffalo, New York, on Thursday. Forecasters issued warnings about an array of possible hazards — heavy snow, flooding, even tornadoes — from Tennessee to Maine.

The storm has already shown its ferocity, blanketing the Midwest on Wednesday and bringing more than 8 inches of snow to Minneapolis. Blizzard conditions delayed hundreds of flights and turned roads into dangerous white sheets.

In Nebraska, the State Police responded to more than 250 crashes or calls for help, including one with tragic results: A couple and a 4-year-old child were killed when the family’s car skidded over a median along Interstate 80 and into an oncoming semitruck. Two young children in the car were injured but survived.

Other parts of the country were pummeled Thursday by a treacherous mix of rain and snow. Forecasters said parts of West Virginia could get more than 1 inch of rain during the day and then up to half a foot of snow in the evening.

“Combine that, and it’s kind of a travel nightmare,” said James Zvolensky, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, West Virginia. “Things can get slippery pretty quick.”

Gusts of up to 65 mph were expected to whip through New York City from late Thursday into Christmas morning, along with heavy rain, potentially knocking over trees and power lines. “Widespread power outages are expected,” the National Weather Service warned.

In parts of upstate New York and Pennsylvania, fast-melting snow and rain is expected to overrun rivers Friday, and forecasters issued flood warnings along the Susquehanna River from Binghamton, New York, to just north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the river could rise as high as it did in 1996, when waterways filled with melted snow forced 100,000 people to evacuate. A flood warning was also issued for Charlottesville, Virginia, which was inundated with rain and where more was expected.

During a pandemic holiday season in which health experts have pleaded with the public not to travel, the brutal weather could be one more reason to stay home for Christmas. Even before noon Thursday, scores of flights in the United States had been canceled.

Last weekend, despite the warnings, more than 1 million travelers a day passed through airport security, about half as many as last year.

In the South, temperatures dropped unusually low Thursday, and severe thunderstorms led forecasters to sound alarms about possible tornadoes. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and a wide swath of eastern North Carolina were to remain under a tornado watch until 10 pm.

Tornadoes were also possible in Virginia and in Florida, where temperatures were expected to plummet by more than 30 degrees over the course of the day as wind and rain moved into the state.

Meanwhile, some cities in the South, including Knoxville, Tennessee, were preparing for their first significant Christmas snowfall in a decade.

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