Snow and ice coat South, closing freeways, airport runways

Snow falling in Louisiana during the pre-dawn hours prompted the closure of multiple interstates as a winter weather system took aim at other states across the Deep South, forecasters said.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday issued winter storm warnings in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. Winter weather advisories covered most of Alabama and much of Georgia. Several school districts across the region canceled classes.

Hundreds of flights were canceled at Texas airports – including Houston, San Antonio and Austin – where frigid temperatures left runways dangerously icy. Forecasters warned mariners along the Texas coast to be on guard for gale-force winds.

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Snow was falling Tuesday morning in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and was expected to move into Alabama and Georgia later in the day.

In Louisiana, state officials said both lanes of Interstate 49 in the Shreveport area were closed early Tuesday. Parts of I-20 and I-220 were also closed.

“We’ve got numerous crashes on the interstates and surface roads,” Louisiana State Trooper Glenn Younger said Tuesday morning from Bossier City, Louisiana, just across the Red River from Shreveport.

“You can’t see the black ice – it’s invisible,” said Younger, who had been driving on roads since 5 a.m. Tuesday and could feel the back end of his patrol car begin to slide at times.

“You want to just barely touch the brakes in that situation,” he said. “A lot of people get scared and they want to jam on the brakes and that makes it worse.”

What looked like about 1 inch (2 centimeters) of snow covered the hood of Glenn Springfield’s truck when he went outside early Tuesday morning in northeast Louisiana, he said. Springfield, a spokesman for the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office, said the worst highway conditions were about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of him – but the snow was heading east.

“We’re just advising people that if you don’t have to work, stay home,” Springfield said.

Ice had coated roads and bridges in 36 of Mississippi’s 82 counties, mostly in the northern and central parts of the state, the Mississippi Department of Transported said in a statement Tuesday morning. Some of the heaviest snow in Mississippi was expected in the state’s Delta region, where up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) was possible.

In Alabama, schools were closing or altering operating hours Tuesday as far south as south Alabama, and numerous businesses and government offices closed because of the threat. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has declared a state of emergency.

Jim Wimberly was at work Tuesday morning managing a Dollar General story in Tuscumbia, in northwest Alabama, despite freezing precipitation on the ground and a forecast of more on the way. Shoppers had emptied the shelves of bread, but the milk case was still stocked because of a delivery on Monday.

“The roads are a little slick right now. It’s been sleeting for about the last hour or two hours,” said Wimberly. “Half of my parking lot is white and half of it is just regular asphalt.”

Alabama officials were trying to avoid a repeat of four years ago, when a winter storm blanketed central Alabama and left motorists stranded on roads in metro Birmingham for hours. Teachers and students camped out in schools.

Forecasters aren’t predicting a large amount of snow for Alabama – just 2 inches (5 centimeters) or less with more in spots. But they say temperatures steadily falling into the teens could freeze anything that comes down.

Drivers had a hard time navigating hills around the north Alabama city of Haleyville, where roads quickly turned white Tuesday morning, but there was still plenty of traffic because manufacturing plants that didn’t close in advance began dismissing workers, store clerk Rose Payne said.

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“It’s coming down as snow, but with these cars driving over it looks ice on the ground,” said Payne, who planned to walk home from her job at Friendly Shop if roads got too bad. “The driveways of businesses are white.”

Several school systems were closed in west Tennessee including Shelby County, which includes Memphis.

Reeves reported from Birmingham, Alabama. Associated Press writers David Warren in Dallas and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed to this report.