SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A winter storm has been moving across the South, bringing up to 10 inches of snow in Arkansas, dusting Birmingham and leaving Atlanta with about 4 inches. This week of cold weather has contributed to dangerous road conditions, school and business closings, flight delays and cancellations. In many southern cities, black ice threatens to send vehicles spinning. Zachary Turner with WFAE in Charlotte reports on how people in the region have been dealing with this unusual winter weather.
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ZACHARY TURNER, BYLINE: Hannah Deese clicks her counter as she does the inventory at Rhino Market in Charlotte. She's general manager at the deli/coffee shop/convenience store.
HANNAH DEESE: I think a lot of people will be, like, oh, my gosh, like, boxed in, and then we're going to be the only thing within walking distance.
TURNER: This was right before the storm hit Charlotte. Charlotte sits just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and used to get about half an inch of snow every winter. But the city hasn't seen any in almost three years. Southeastern cities just don't see snow often, which is why Deese is so worried about the roads.
DEESE: It's definitely been chaotic. You know, it's always nervous with people driving.
TURNER: Governors across the southeast declared a state of emergency in advance of the storm. Georgia's Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry took no chances. He commended highway emergency teams, calling them heroes, and said they were busy Friday saving motorists with less experience on icy roads.
RUSSELL MCMURRY: Our heroes are working significant amount of spinouts and people just losing control. Where it's slushy, remember to slow down, drive very conservatively, no hard braking and no quick maneuvers of the steering wheel.
TURNER: Images of overturned cars in Georgia circulated on social media Friday. Airports across the southeast have had thousands of cancellations already. Unlike cities further north, southern cities seemingly shut down after a few inches of snow. Robert Graham, deputy director of Charlotte Emergency Management, said equipment like snow plows makes all the difference.
ROBERT GRAHAM: I worked in Connecticut right after college. We had 110 inches of snow. And as a Southerner, I was caught off by the fact that we had a blizzard and every 30 minutes a plow came by.
TURNER: Here, snow removal is so rare, Graham says it's easier to just take a snow day.
GRAHAM: It's almost more miserable up there than it is here 'cause you get to enjoy the snow.
TURNER: But Graham says the snow is best enjoyed when people stay off the icy roads.
For NPR News, I'm Zachary Turner in Charlotte. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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