NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Tennessee’s winter storm death toll has now risen to 30, with another Winter Storm Advisory in effect through Wednesday morning.
Mark Rose is a meteorologist in the Nashville Weather Service Office.
“We’re forecasting snow this afternoon and evening. We’re expecting it to begin late afternoon…Nashville Metro area probably about an inch and for the Murfreesboro area we’ll say probably 1 to 2 inches of accumulation. Then you get down to the Alabama state line and you’re looking for two to four inches.”
Rose says the mid-state likely will not see the kind of freezing rain that did so much damage in Tennessee last week.
Tuesday, Gov. Bill Haslam flew over portions of the Cumberland Plateau. The region suffered some of the state’s worst damage. Haslam is urging people to check on their neighbors.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency says there are still six emergency shelters open in five Cumberland Plateau counties. About 200 residents forced were in those shelters Tuesday night. National Guard units have been called in to help get cleanup efforts underway.
Rafferty Cleary is News Director for Stonecom Radio in Cookeville. Earlier this week he described some of the damage he saw in the Jamestown area.
“People were chopping trees down from the base, power lines snapped in half, transformers laying down across the ground, power lines just low…dangling across the roadways, trees completely blocking roads; I mean just unbelievable.”
State officials say some of the 10 hypothermia deaths in Tennessee occurred when elderly residents fell and couldn’t get back inside out of the cold. Other residents froze to death when their homes lost power.
Gov. Haslam is urging Tennesseans to check on their neighbors as this latest storm pushes across the region.
The Weather Service Winter Weather Advisory will expire Wednesday morning at 6 a.m.