Winter storm slams into the South

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Snow swirled sideways in Kentucky and the typically bustling state capital of Frankfort came to a frozen halt Monday as a storm walloped parts of the South, which unlike the Northeast had been mostly spared this winter.

That all changed with a mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain across the region, making roads treacherous and knocking out power to thousands of people. Luckily, the storm arrived on a holiday, Presidents Day, when many schools and businesses were already closed and the morning commute was not as busy.

Officials also made certain roads were prepared this year after Southern cities - most notably Atlanta - were caught off guard a year ago when a winter storm stranded thousands of people on interstates overnight.

Still, some weren't quite ready for the winter blast.

RL Doss said he had already used his 1987 GMC Suburban - which can haul up to three-quarters of a ton with ropes and chains - to rescue several people and their cars on the hills surrounding Frankfort. Cars were fishtailing and sliding off the slick roads.

"I look at it this way. Everybody is trying to get out, to get their last bit of food and stuff, getting home from work and people leaving for work and stuff, and it happens," he said, shivering in a pair of tan overalls pulled over a hooded sweatshirt.

In the Northeast, which has been slammed by seemingly endless snow, the white stuff stopped falling but the temperatures were bitterly cold. New York City came close to breaking a 127-year-old record when the temperature in Central Park hit 3 degrees, just 2 degrees above the record set in 1888, said Jeffrey Tongue, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said the latest snowstorm left one person dead, apparently due to a heart attack while shoveling snow.

The storm was headed toward the Carolinas overnight, then expected to march through the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear urged people to stay home if possible. By Monday afternoon, nine inches of snow had fallen in Louisville, and other parts were buried under a foot of snow.

In central Kentucky, home to much of the state's signature thoroughbred industry, horses kept warm by galloping through the deep snow, pausing occasionally to shake it off from their thick winter coats.

Arkansas, where temperatures plummeted from the 70s on Saturday to highs in the 30s a day later, had nearly 30,000 people without power at the peak of the storm.

Roads were slushy and traffic was moving slowly in Tennessee. Justyn Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Nashville, said the last bad winter storm in the city was in 2010, when up to four inches of snow fell.

"A lot of cities up North, they deal with this several times during the winter. It's really not uncommon for them at all," Jackson said. "Down here, especially in Nashville, although it's not rare, it certainly on average happens once or twice a winter."