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The National Guard has been called in to assist in clearing the roads.
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — What started as a minor crash quickly snowballed into a major traffic incident involving more than 100 vehicles in North Carolina.
After a small collision on Interstate 85 North in Kannapolis, dozens of tractor-trailers had to slow down to attempt to maneuver around it. The slowdown chilled already slow moving roads.
Over 30 tractor-trailers and more than 70 cars are trapped on the highway, according to North Carolina state troopers.
Due to the freezing temperatures and inches of snowfall, the large trucks can’t gain enough momentum to move along, keeping traffic at a glacial pace.
The National Guard has been called in to assist in clearing the roads. Six National Guard trucks were called, along with several large trucks from Cabarrus and surrounding counties.
Any drivers heading north should take a detour to avoid exit 60 through exit 63, Lane Street. Authorities expect the situation will take hours to clear.
Many roads on traffic cameras appeared to be completely covered in snow Saturday evening.
The North Carolina State Highway Patrol said they responded to 817 calls for service and 750 collisions statewide between midnight and 6 p.m. Saturday due to weather.
About 240 million people were under cold weather advisories and winter storm warnings Saturday as a powerful system threatened to bring howling winds, flooding and heavy snow to the East Coast — including blizzardlike conditions stemming from a “bomb cyclone” in the Southeast, a forecaster said.
Temperatures were plummeting even as tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power from a blast of snow and ice last weekend that snarled traffic, knocked down trees, and caused more than 100 deaths. A low temperature of minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 33 degrees Celsius) was recorded Saturday morning in West Virginia, said Bob Oravec, lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
Parts of the southern Appalachians, the Carolinas and Georgia could see 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) of snow, he said. The Carolinas could see blizzard conditions stemming from the bomb cyclone, a term Oravec used to described an intense, rapidly strengthening storm system off the Southeast coast packing strong winds.
Subfreezing weather was forecast into February, with heavy snow in the Carolinas, Virginia and northeast Georgia over the weekend including up to a foot (30 centimeters) in parts of North Carolina. Snow was also said to be possible from Maryland to Maine.
The frigid cold was expected to plunge as far south as Florida.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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