Southeast Shivers Through Snowstorms, Power Outages

Warm clothes?

Sure, he has warm clothes.

He has long johns and sweaters and gloves and a trench coat and a leather jacket. Lately, security guard Steve Roberts has been wearing them all at once--and wishing he had a few more layers to add. “I’m trying to get blankets to walk around in,” he said. “I’m telling you, it’s really cold.”

Really cold--in Mobile, Ala.

And in Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Arkansas too.

The early winter storms that have rolled across the Southeast the last few days continued Tuesday, with at least 3 inches of slushy snow falling in Atlanta--delaying flights, closing schools, jamming commutes and delighting kids with the perfect conditions for snowmen.

“Most people say they never expected snow to fall here in Georgia,” said Gary Howe, night manager for the Grand Hyatt Atlanta. “It takes a little bit of getting used to.”

Thousands of people, meanwhile, remained without power in Arkansas. Gov. Mike Huckabee declared disaster areas in more than 40 counties amid stories of residents left in the dark for more than a week--subsisting on canned soup heated over candles and begging local inns to find them rooms. (One man, desperate for a hot meal, crashed a company Christmas party in Little Rock with a sob story good enough to earn him a heaping plate of ribs, ham and turkey with all the trimmings.)

Where it wasn’t snowing or sleeting, it was cold.

In Jacksonville, Fla., the temperature dipped to 43 degrees Tuesday. That’s downright balmy for Midwesterners used to wind chills of 43 below. But it was a record low for Jacksonville. And other cities in the Southeast were truly frigid, with temperatures predicted in the teens Tuesday night for parts of Mississippi and central Florida.

“The huge cold burst they’re feeling now is probably odd for them,” said Amy Talmage, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc.

“The problem,” added her colleague Steve Pryor, “is we’re just coming off two warm years, so people are a little stunned.”

They better get used to it.

The chill is expected to settle in over much of the nation for at least the next two weeks. And it’s going to be rainy, sleety or snowy across much of the Midwest and South. As National Weather Service Director Jack Kelly put it: “Take precautions now to prepare for this winter, because it’s here.”

Certainly, no one in Milwaukee would quibble with that assessment.

Counting an 11-inch accumulation on Monday, the city has set a record for December with 32.7 inches of snow--and there are still 10 days to go. Chicago has had to dig out of some big storms as well; its snowfall total for December is already 17.5 inches--twice the average.

The snow has piled so deep in Wisconsin (and another foot is expected today) that the Green Bay Packers put out a call for up to 200 people to help shovel out the stadium for Sunday’s game, at $7 an hour. As usual, the team didn’t have any trouble finding willing workers.

“It’s Lambeau Field,” explained Christopher Clough, a reporter at the Green Bay News-Chronicle.

That should be explanation enough for Packers fans, but for the uninitiated, Clough added: “It’s the biggest show in town. I’m sure there wouldn’t be as many people helping if they had to do it for free, but there would still be quite a few. People want to help. It’s their opportunity, in however indirect a way, to be part of the Packer mystique.”

(And, for the record, Clough wants to make clear that the yahoos who will inevitably be shown on television bare-chested and beer-clenching at Sunday’s game do not represent all Green Bay residents. Most fans, he insisted, bundle up sensibly--even though many have to cover their beloved green and gold T-shirts with the warmest things they own, fluorescent orange hunting gear.)

Far from the winter storms, meanwhile, a bit of brighter weather news broke this week: Helped along by offshore winds that shooed away the marine layer, two California cities hit record highs Monday. Paso Robles reported 73 degrees and Lompoc rang in at 80.

In sleety Atlanta, Mary Macy wasn’t jealous. “I’m down here finishing my basement,” she reported, explaining that she plans to move her real estate office there. “It’s one of those projects you never get a chance to work on. The weather here is usually so good that you don’t get to spend time inside.”

Now she has that chance.