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Update: Christmas Storms Blamed for at Least 6 Deaths, Blizzards Headed Toward Northeast

Dec. 26, 2012 7:15am Jason Howerton

MOBILE, Ala. (TheBlaze/AP) — A Christmas Day storms that have been blamed for at least six deaths are moving toward the Northeast and are expected to exacerbate holiday travel that has already suffered major havoc.

Drenching rainstorms rumbled across Georgia early Wednesday without causing any apparent damages. But Georgia Power officials said thousands lost power in the state as the storm system moved on toward the Carolinas, taking aim at the heavily populated Eastern seaboard. Farther north on a line from Little Rock, Ark., to Cleveland, blizzard conditions were predicted before the snow — up to a foot in some places — made its way into the Northeast.

On Tuesday, winds toppled a tree onto a pickup truck in the Houston area, killing the driver, and a 53-year-old north Louisiana man was killed when a tree fell on his house. Icy roads already were blamed for a 21-vehicle pileup in Oklahoma, and the Highway Patrol there says a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy U.S. Highway near Fairview.

Mobile was the biggest city hit by numerous rare winter twisters. Along with brutal, straight-line winds, the storms knocked down countless trees, blew the roofs off homes and left many Christmas celebrations in the dark. Torrential rains drenched the region and several places saw flash flooding.

More than 325 flights around, into and leaving the U.S. were canceled as of Wednesday morning, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com. The cancelations were mostly spread around airports that had been or soon would be in the path of the storm.

Holiday travelers in the nation’s much colder midsection battled treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions from the same fast-moving storms. In Arkansas, highway department officials said the state was fortunate the snowstorm hit on Christmas Day when many travelers were already at their destinations.

Texas, meanwhile, dealt with high winds and slickened highways.

The snowstorm that caused numerous accidents pushed out of Oklahoma late Tuesday, carrying with it blizzard warnings for parts of northeast Arkansas, where 10 inches of snow was forecast. Freezing rain clung to trees and utility lines in Arkansas and winds gusts up to 30 mph whipped them around, causing about 71,000 customers to lose electricity.

Christmas Storms Across U.S. Blamed for at Least 2 Deaths

Christmas eve snowstorm in Martinsburg, W.Va. (Photo: AP)

: Dauphin Street at North Carlen Street in the Midtown section of Mobile, Ala. is impassable after a tornado touched down Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. (Photo: AP)

A Lawton, Okla., police cruiser tries to navigate the snow as blizzard conditions hit southwest Oklahoma at midday Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. Credit: AP

A large tree covers the front lawn of a home after tornado touched down Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012 in the Midtown area of Mobile, Ala. A Christmas Day twister outbreak left damage across the Deep South while holiday travelers in the nation’s much colder midsection battled sometimes treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions. Credit: AP

Blizzard conditions were possible for parts of Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky with predictions of 4 to 7 inches of snow.

Some mountainous areas of Arkansas’ Ozark Mountains could get up to 10 inches of snow, which would make travel “very hazardous or impossible” in the northern tier of the state from near whiteout conditions, the National Weather Service said.

The holiday may conjure visions of snow and ice, but twisters this time of year are not unheard of. Ten storm systems in the last 50 years have spawned at least one Christmastime tornado with winds of 113 mph or more in the South, said Chris Vaccaro, a National Weather Service spokesman in Washington, via email.

The most lethal were the storms of Dec. 24-26, 1982, when 29 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi killed three people and injured 32.

This story has been updated as the death toll rose.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (23)

jessieH
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 11:04am
All this snow & no beer to put in it. GOD is punishing me.

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- Yeah_Buddy
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 1:36pm
  One thing I miss being in southern california, is doing donuts in snowy parking lots…okay I’m over that now…back to 70 and sunny.
  
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piper60
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 9:30am
I have noticed, that Alabama always seems to get twisters this time of year. What did they do?

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MaggieRose
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 8:18am
So… out here in the wild west we have 100mph winds and a foot of snow in less than 24 hours… power out all over the place… trees down… but I have noticed it doesn’t count until it hits the Northeast… bunch of wimps… it’s winter for crying out loud!

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aplingtjayonia
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 8:09am
I think the governor of RI would preferr we call them ‘holiday storms’.

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sinner-saint
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 2:43am
Dam….I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Now they’ll try to ban the weather for killing people.

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CatherineAnn
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 1:43am
Look how cold it has been in Russia and Europe. They say the winds have changed direction over the poles. Scientist don’t know why. Could be in for some freaky weather and no it is not global warming. Something is happening. Can you imagine what 50 below is like?

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- Gorp
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 5:42am
  Yes I can. When I was a kid in northern MN we had a winter where it got down to 40-45 below for a couple of days. And that was the temp and not wind chill. We lived on the north shore of Buck Lake and didn’t get hardly any snow until mid January. We had the whole lake for a skating rink. We’d take the car out on the ice and get going around 50 and slam on the brakes and turn the wheel. We’d be spinning like a top almost. There were a few times we wondered if we’d stop in time to not hit the shoreline. We did stop, take a deep breath and head off in the direction we just came from and do it all over again. What fun that was!
  
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- bigdaddyt46
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 6:16am
  i can. record in WI is -25, with an -80 windchill factor. was working security that day.
  
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- hyper
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 8:10am
  My mom was born and raised in SD where she routinely saw 40 below without windchill…back in the 30′s and 40′s before high tech clothing, central heat, and engine heaters. I think she survived. It’s the north…it snows every year. Now every self-proclaimed environmentalist will be shouting it’s “man’s fault” for all of this because we’ve evolved into a bunch of wimps who can’t survive unless they can “google” their way out. Temperature extremes are a part of environmental cycles that’s been going on for centuries.
  
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wwwjr
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 1:06am
Do you ever get tired of this crap? Blame the weather for stupid reckless drivers. Blame gun for murders. Blame the rich for poor people being poor. Blame a lack of education on teachers. Blame welfare recipients on the government.

Get a life folks. The weather ain’t the cause of your inability to drive. Guns aren’t the cause of killers in society. Rich people don’t waste their time taking second-hand crap from the poor. Dumb people come of people to lazy to study, not from teacher teaching the wrong things. Governments wrongfully feed the poor, but they sure don’t create the poor.

Quit trying to find a scapegoat for every loser on the planet. Get off your lazy azzes and drive responsibly. When you see somebody misusing a gun call a cop. If you see the poor give them a helping hand..just like most rich folks already do, and stop being a selfish ingrate. When someone doesn’t know something, attempt to teach them; if they don’t want to learn let them suffer. Help the poor and stop asking the government to do the thing that is untasteful to you, such and being kind.

In short, pull your heads out of your anal cavity.

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- What the Heck
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 7:59am
  CHRISTMAS storms? So is it Christmas’s fault now and not GW Bush? Is it possible it could be Ramadan storm, or Festivas storm?
  
  Good Post. Thanks for saying this.
  
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- loriann12
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 8:18am
  Try being from the midwest (one year we got 24 inches of snow), and moving to TEXAS. These people can’t drive on WET pavement, let alone icy/snowy pavement. We had a 20 minute drive to get home from the in-laws and I made my husband leave while it was still snowing. I said, yes, I know you know how to drive on icy roads, it’s the other people I don’t trust. We ended up with a couple inches in Garland, TX…..a couple years ago we had 12 inches, but not until February.
  
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- Zeb
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 6:46pm
  After reading your comment several times, I am as conflicted with it’s meaning as you must have been when you made it. Maybe it is that you seem to be misconstrued about the efficacy of the teachers who graduate with honors students that cannot read at a sixth grade level. You must have been a product of that curriculum. This statement in particular ‘Governments wrongfully feed the poor, but they sure don’t create the poor.’ The creation of a welfare state is exactly the creation of the habitually poor and slaves to the state ‘GOV’ SERFDOM. We do need to feed those in need and provide a means for them to provide for their own care, ‘JOBS’ We need get government out of our lives, and smaller is better. We need to exercise that god given free agency, to develop personal
  honor and ethics, Until that is predominant in our society you will still need a gun for your own protection. As for the weather it’s in gods hands and as long as it is mankind will be better off, for be warned that when Governments control the weather nobody will be able to tolerate it, or afford it.
  
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OHN
Posted on December 25, 2012 at 11:55pm
OBAMA better get right on this!!!!!!!!!!!!

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- RisetovotesiR
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 12:19am
  why? these people did not vote for him. serves them right, racists.
  
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- RepubliCorp
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 7:26am
  He will get it right…he is calling a NRA assault blizzard
  
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whatthecrazy
Posted on December 25, 2012 at 10:56pm
There is just never a good time to die,at least i can’t think of one.God bless these families who have to endure tragedy at this time.

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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on December 25, 2012 at 10:38pm
God bring peace and comfort the families of those lost this day.

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BasketFullOfPuppies
Posted on December 25, 2012 at 10:29pm
Ban them!

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Apple Bite
Posted on December 25, 2012 at 9:52pm
Somebody in Oklahoma close the fridge! You’re cooling off my warmth up north!

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The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on December 25, 2012 at 9:50pm
I’ll bet the tornado whipped an assault rifle up into the air that was just laying around someones kitchen and a twig smashed into the trigger firing 30 rounds in 3 seconds which struck 2 people handing blankets and hundred dollar bills out to the homeless in Nebraska.

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- mercenary4freedom
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 12:30am
  BAN storms!
  
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