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Crippling winter weather sweeps from South to New England

A large stretch of the South and mid-Atlantic is struggling under a heavy coat of snow and ice
From Kentucky to North Carolina, snow, sleet and ice stun millions 02:17

A winter storm crippling cities in the South has swept up through the Mid-Atlantic and is expected to bring more snowfall to New England.

In the Southeast, a dangerous mix of heavy snow and freezing cold temperatures are making for messy roads, reports CBS News correspondent Vicente Arenas.

"It's really bad. Real bad. There's trucks turned over, cars getting stuck. It's dangerous," one person said.

Northeast facing brutal wind chills, even more snow 02:36

A family driving through Tennessee narrowly avoided disaster as a sheet of ice came crashing through their window.

"I saw a sheet of ice lift up off the roof of a truck and I saw it come flipping at us," one family member said. "We are safe, we are sound; some nicks and scratches, lot of glass in a whole lot of places."

In Manassas, Virginia, slushy streets led to more wrecks, and a state of emergency was issued.

"I don't know if you've ever driven in Manassas, but they don't know what they're doing," one person said.

Officials in Kentucky advised people stay home unless there was an emergency.

Many cities are still recovering from a weekend storm that knocked out power for thousands. Utility crews have bought in hundreds of additional workers, with forecasters predicting up to a foot of snow in parts of the South.

Government workers sent home as massive storm hits D.C. 01:07

"We had crews that worked 16, 18 hours," Central Virginia Electric worker Greg Kelly said. "They've since had their rest they're ready to go."

In North Carolina, they're going to need all the help they can get. Already, more than 85,000 people across the state are without power.

Hundreds of North Carolina schools will remain closed or open late. The state's governor has declared a state of emergency, instructing the state highway patrol to comb through the streets, looking for anyone who may be stranded in cars.

New England isn't feeling relief from its own pummeling winter weather, reports CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan. While Bostonians are not directly in the path of the latest storm, several more inches of snow could fall. The city, along with much of the Northeast, is struggling to deal with the obstacles the bitter cold and numerous storms have left behind.

Twelve people were evacuated from their homes in the Boston suburb of Saugus when the roof of an auto repair shop buckled under the weight of heavy snow Monday night. A home in Billerica caved in too, trapping its owner inside. And earlier in the day, a hardware store in southern Massachusetts collapsed; just three of dozens of buildings in New England to crumble under the accumulation.

"The wind blows down the street and it feels like it's 6 below zero," one person said.

The extreme weather that brought historic snowfall and arctic temperatures to the Northeast is not just inconvenient, it's dangerous.

A frozen pipe burst in a New York City movie theater Monday, sending a light fixture crashing to the ground. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Wind chills 16 below zero challenged firefighters struggling to put out a fire in a Philadelphia house, the water from their hoses freezing on impact and coating the home in ice.

"The level of snow right now is becoming unbearable, just absolute terror," Boston resident Richard Burson said.

Looking around Boston, it's hard to tell nearly 300,000 miles of snow have been plowed this winter as cars struggled to make their way down what used to be a two-way street.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority paid people $30 an hour to help shovel Monday. It may take a month to get the city's public transit fully operational.

With 8 feet of accumulation already on the ground, Boston is closing in on the city's all-time record for snowiest winter -- 107.6 inches in 1996.

City officials are encouraging people to support the local economy. One restaurant owner said his business has been down about 60 percent in the last three weeks because people just don't want to go outside and attempt to deal with parking.

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