Another Winter Storm Slams The South

A second winter storm in as many days hit Oklahoma and Arkansas early Thursday, closing schools, grounding planes and keeping roads slick and dangerous.

The storm followed snow and freezing drizzle that fell on the area Wednesday, causing dozens of accidents and four deaths.

The first storm, meanwhile, moved on into northern Alabama, northern Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday, dropping more than four inches of snow in some spots.

Schools and businesses in the area closed or opened late, more than 2,000 homes and businesses lost power in western North Carolina, and flights were canceled in the Carolinas.

There were plenty of driving mishaps in a region that doesn't get much snow and ice.

"I really wasn't going that fast. And that tail end just started sliding. Once it went sideways two or three times, there was nothing I could do. It just flipped over," said Nicky Jacobs of Randolph County, N.C. "It just happened quickly. The tail end come (sic) out from under me. I corrected it, but when I corrected it, it went the other way."

By the time most people headed to work in the Midlands, in central South Carolina, snowflakes had turned to a cold, steady rain.

"I'm scared to drive just when it's raining," said Marie Davis, 68, of Columbia. "The bad part is the other people. They drive like crazy."

The storm led to three traffic deaths in Oklahoma, including one when a trucker hit a pedestrian on an icy overpass near Dale. Almost 200 people were taken to hospitals in Oklahoma City and Tulsa after wrecks. A woman died in Arkansas when her vehicle slid across a highway median and crashed with a tractor-trailer.

Oklahoma troopers said travel was improving Thursday, but roads throughout central and northeastern Oklahoma were still hazardous because of the second storm.

In Tulsa, a crash left a 23-year-old woman critically injured, said Tina Wells of the Emergency Medical Services Authority.

Up to two inches of snow was expected to fall by early afternoon, said meteorologist Cheryl Sharpe with the National Weather Service.

A three-day storm that hit Oklahoma beginning Jan. 12 caused 32 deaths and left more than 120,000 power outages across eastern Oklahoma.