Cold Air Settles Into the South

Bitterly cold air settled deep into the South on Wednesday, chasing the homeless into shelters and turning slush into sheets of ice. <br><br>Snow made roads slippery across the Northeast as the storm that

Wednesday, December 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Bitterly cold air settled deep into the South on Wednesday, chasing the homeless into shelters and turning slush into sheets of ice.

Snow made roads slippery across the Northeast as the storm that earlier created the slush in the South headed out to sea.

The temperature in Birmingham, Ala., fell to a Wednesday morning reading of 12 and homeless shelters were full. At many, people slept on mats on the floor.

``It's not as nice as a bed, but it certainly beats the cold weather outside,'' said Tony Cooper, executive director of the Jimmie Hale Mission.

Atlanta chilled to 12 degrees Wednesday morning and Jackson, Miss., shivered at 16. Temperatures in Florida included 19 at Pensacola, 21 at Jacksonville and 28 at Orlando. On the Gulf of Mexico, Mobile, Ala., got down to 19.

The wind chill at 5 a.m. was nearly 40 below zero at Boone, N.C., thanks to a temperature of 7 degrees and wind gusting to 34 mph.

Some Georgia schools were closed for a second day because of the cold and the slippery roads that sent drivers sliding into ditches and each other.

Lance Wrecker Service in Gwinnett County northeast of Atlanta was swamped with calls from drivers stranded by the snow or by cold engines, said dispatcher Pamela Emerson.

``We're seeing a lot of stalled cars on the road ... easily a hundred a day,'' she said.

In the Northeast, 8 inches of snow fell overnight at Eustis in western Maine.

``We've had a lot of slide-offs, but nothing serious. It's slippery, but people are paying attention,'' said Maine state police dispatchers Marcia Gilpatrick.

Many morning flights from Boston's Logan International Airport were canceled or delayed an average of three to four hours, airport spokesman Jose Juves said. Only one of the airport's runways was open because of gusty winds.

On Tuesday, snow fell along the Appalachians and East Coast from Canada south into Georgia, with 5 inches of flakes falling in parts of Maryland, West Virginia and the Carolinas.

North Carolina transportation crews stayed busy Tuesday afternoon and evening, applying salt and sand to prevent overnight ice buildup on wet roads and bridges.

``If you don't clear a road before dark, chances are good it will crust back over, making it a lot harder to deal with,'' said Mike Pettyjohn, who oversees eight northwestern counties. ``We don't want any roads freezing up if we can help it.''

Don Bobo's hardware store in Pickens, S.C., sold two snow shovels Tuesday, but he still had a half dozen in stock as the showers eased to flurries.

``It's going to have to snow harder before we sell the rest of them,'' he said.

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On the Net:

National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov