Delta flight interrupted in Atlanta: Four passengers injured in incident

Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders mobilized the National Guard to help stranded drivers. School was canceled for millions of children across a vast swath of the Southern states, from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina.

According to the National Weather Service, some of the heaviest snowfall is expected Friday in the northern half of Arkansas and much of Tennessee, with some parts of those states expected to receive 6 to 8 inches of snowfall.

As much as a foot (about 31 centimeters) of snow fell in parts of Arkansas, where schools remained closed Friday. Memphis, Tennessee, already had six inches covered late Thursday into Friday morning, and heavy, wet flakes continued to fall.

Farther south and east into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, a wintry mix of sleet, snow and ice made travel difficult.

Mikayla Johnson, 12, made snow angels and snowmen in Atlanta on her day off from school.

“My first thought was: WOW!” said Mikayla, who was outside with her father, Nate. “We haven’t had snow since I was 4 – at least good snow. So I’m really happy.”

The storm dropped as much as 7 inches (about 18 centimeters) in some places in central Oklahoma and northern Texas.

And in the Kansas City area, students in several districts returned to school Thursday after three straight days of snow, but classes were canceled again on Friday because of more snow.

Snow began falling before dawn, causing hundreds of flights to be canceled and hundreds more to be delayed at Atlanta’s airport, according to flight tracking software FlightAware in metro Atlanta. Controllers declared a ground stop before 8 a.m., which meant no planes could land or take off. Atlanta, the main hub for Delta Air Lines, is the world’s busiest airport.

Four passengers were injured when a Delta Air Lines flight to Minneapolis aborted takeoff Friday morning, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport officials said.

One passenger was taken to hospital for observation, three people were treated on site for minor injuries. The incident contributed to further delays at the airport, although Delta said it was unclear whether weather had anything to do with the flight interruption.

Other airports seeing significant delays and cancellations include airports in Charlotte, North Carolina, Dallas-Fort Worth and Nashville. Fifty-five passengers on three American Airlines flights diverted from Dallas-Fort Worth spent the night at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock on Thursday.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged residents to avoid driving if possible. About 75,000 fans were expected at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Friday for the college football championship semifinals between Texas and Ohio State at the Cotton Bowl.

Polar vortex ultracold air usually circles the North Pole, but sometimes heads south into the United States, Europe and Asia. Some experts say that such events are happening more often, paradoxically, because: a warming world.

A cold crack coincided with rare January fires making their way through the Los Angeles area.

Midday discomfort

As much as 8 inches (about 20 centimeters) of snow may fall in pieces The Weather Service said it was in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia through Saturday. Snow and ice likely accumulated in metro Atlanta on Friday, making roadways unsafe and possibly causing power outages.

More than a million public school students in metro Atlanta and northern Georgia took in the snow day or learned from home online.

After a devastating snowstorm in 2014 left thousands of Atlanta-area workers and students stranded from home overnight, officials in Georgia quickly canceled in-person classes and closed offices on Friday.

Emergency officials in Georgia said they had learned lessons from previous ice storms in Atlanta. During this storm, crews are towing vehicles that have become stuck in snow, which has been a huge problem during previous ice and snow storms when highways and interstates clog with stranded cars and trucks, said James Stallings, director of Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

Many schools canceled classes Friday in northern Alabama, where state roads were largely covered with snow or ice and some were already impassable, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said Friday morning.

Tennessee also faced a state of emergency. The state’s largest school district, Memphis-Shelby County Schools, which enrolls more than 100,000 students, closed all schools on Friday. A spokeswoman said tours of Graceland, the former Elvis Presley museum, were canceled on Friday.

On Friday, Joe Feliciano stomped down snow-covered sidewalks to deliver mail in Nashville. The Florida resident isn’t used to driving in snow, but the U.S. Postal Service trained him, so now he’s “nervous but confident.” Drive slowly and be careful, he added.

“It’s like, ‘Wow!’ That’s a lot of snow,” Feliciano said, noting he moved to Tennessee in late 2023.

Parts of South Carolina saw winter weather for the first time in three years. The state Department of Transportation addressed interstates and other major highways north from Columbia, but vehicles slid off icy Interstate 95 south of the city. Some schools were closed on Friday.

Governor Josh Stein has declared a state of emergency in North Carolina. The approaching storm prompted the cancellation of an outdoor public inauguration ceremony Saturday in Raleigh for Stein and other statewide elected officials.

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Loller reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press reporters Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

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