Winter storm moves east, leaves thousands without power on Atlantic coast

Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A winter storm that left seven people dead as it made its way across the midwestern United States, hit the Atlantic coast on Sunday.

The National Weather Service said up to a foot of snowfall is possiblein Washington D.C., and Virginia on Sunday through Monday, while freezing rain is expected for the western Carolinas into southern Virginia.

The NWS also issued a winter storm warning for Washington, parts of central Maryland and northern and northwest Virginia through 6 p.m.

Snow and ice are expected to contribute to slick travel in the Mid-Atlantic on Sunday night.

AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said the storm will be "a long-duration winter storm event" for many areas, lasting between 12 and 48 hours.

Nearly 100,000 people were without power in North Carolina and another 32,000 outages were reported in Virginia, according to PowerOutage.US on Sunday afternoon.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency Saturday Saturday as the state could experience 3 to 5 inches of snow and half an inch of ice.

The snowstorm dropped nearly a foot of snow on the St. Louis area on Saturday and at least four people died in traffic accidents related to the storms.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said it responded to 48 injuries, 723 crashes, 1,252 stranded motorists and 2,968 calls for service through 8 a.m. Saturday.

Another three people died in traffic accidents on Friday in Kansas, authorities said.

The Missouri Department of Transportation warned residents against unnecessary travel, but said crews made progress clearing roads Saturday to bring water and food to motorists stranded amid stalls on interstates on snow covered interstates.

At Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, 8.7 inches of snow fell, including 4.1 inches between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday, a National Weather Service meteorologist told Cincinnati.com.

A Delta Air Lines plane slid off a taxiway and onto the grass after landing at the airport at 5:30 a.m. The 126 passengers and crew on board the flight from Las Vegas were placed on buses to the terminal and no one was injured, the airport posted on Twitter.

In the Pittsburgh area, the first winter storm of the year dumped up to 6 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.