East Braces For Major Winter Storm

Forecasters predicted a major winter storm for the East Coast on Thursday, bringing heavy rain, sleet and snow up the coast through Friday.

A low-pressure system was expected to move out of the Mississippi Delta early Thursday and head northeast. Areas close to the coast were expected to see mostly rain, but it was expected to turn to mixed precipitation and freezing rain away from the coast.

Northern Georgia was hit with a jolt of freezing rain and ice Thursday morning that downed tree limbs, closed schools and knocked out power to thousands.

About 57,000 customers in the Atlanta area were without electricity, Georgia Power spokeswoman Carol Boatright said. Another 15,000 lost power in areas of northeast Georgia including Athens, Gainesville and Cornelia. The outages were being caused by ice forming on tree limbs, which then fell into power lines, she said.

"We woke up at about 4 o'clock and heard a tree smashing through the house. It actually smashed into our son's room," Matt Simon in Sandy Spring, Ga. "And we just ran in and that tree just completely uprooted. I mean, it looks like it was just pushed down."

The western portions of Virginia and North Carolina were expected to receive the worst of the freezing rain.

The freezing rain began falling about 2:30 a.m. and very quickly the bridges and overpasses in the Charlotte, N.C., area began to freeze up. Within the span of just half an hour, there were dozens of accidents in western North Carolina, says CBS News reporter Pete Combs.

"I drove a span of about 12 miles, from one part of east Charlotte around to the northwest side. In that 12 miles, I saw seven separate accidents," Combs reports.

Many parts of Minnesota were under at least 8 inches of wet and heavy snow by Wednesday night, with 16.5 inches in Two Harbors along the North Shore of Lake Superior, and more than 11 inches in Duluth.

Heavy snowfall was predicted Thursday for northern New York and Vermont.

The storm could also produce severe weather across Florida. Thunderstorms were predicted for the northern part of the state, while forecasters said gusty winds, hail and even an isolated tornado was possible.

New York City was not only bracing for the storm Thursday evening, but also its first bus and subway strike in more than 25 years. More than 7 million people a day use the transit system. The contract for the Transit Workers Union's 33,000 members expires at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

If the workers walk out, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to implement major restrictions on driving in the city.

Maine's largest city is awaiting approval of a state discharge permit that could allow it to begin dumping truckloads of fresh snow from downtown streets into Portland Harbor by the end of the month.

Portland presently hauls snow from congested downtown streets to locations several miles inland, where it piles up and forms a grimy glacier before melting by spring.

Because snow picks up pollutants while falling through the air or while covering streets and parking lots, ocean disposal raises environmental concerns.