The Big Chill Continues
The eastern two-thirds of the nation was at the mercy of a bitterly cold air mass that has endangered Florida's citrus trees, choked northern harbors with ice and left bewildered residents of North Carolina's Outer Banks snowboarding on sand dunes covered with up to a foot of snow.
The icy chill continued Friday in the South, below-freezing temperatures in most locations.
And the financial forecast is almost as chilling as the weather forecast. The cost of keeping warm will be much higher this year over last, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Schlesinger.
"Heating bills this years will be anywhere from 30 to 40 per cent above those levels which is a vast change from a year ago," said John Davis of Smith Barney.
In a delicate economy, where consumers keep things humming those higher heating bills could cool off the hoped for recovery.
"The change here is that a lot more money is gonna go into your heating bills rather than buying other things," he said.
Even if you' re not feeling the cold, you could well feel the pinch. In Florida, farmers like Roger Sizemore are fighting to protect their fruits and vegetables. Most of the country's winter vegetables come from places like this…and the cold even reached here. Sizemore did not have a good night.
"I would say you had a damage of anywhere between 40 and 50 per cent," he said.
If Sizemore and other farmers can't save their crops…prices could go up in markets across the country soon. A break in the cold can't come too soon.
However, CBS News Correspondent Peter King reports more cold temperatures are expected, and it could be a several weeks before there is a true assessment.
Forecasters said temperatures wouldn't get well above freezing until Saturday afternoon.
President Bush on Friday ordered the release of $200 million to a federal home heating aid program to help millions of low-income people pay their heating bills.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the money would help such individuals "respond to the rising cost of home heating oil, particularly during this cold snap."
Cabin fever is already setting in across much of the Southeast, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Krasula. Residents of the Carolinas poked their heads out of their burrows and headed to the stores.
"Oh, I just had to get out. I'm tired of being cooped up in the house, so I thought we'd come to the mall to buy some shoes for snow," said one woman.
The temperature Friday morning was 10 degrees in Fort Mill, S.C., transplanted Pennsylvanian Dick Sine told CBSNews.com after brushing snow off his car. He was not able to go to work Thursday.
"We really got hit hard and there is not enough equipment to handle it here," he said. "I am writing a letter to the governor to ask for a property tax rebate."
There was a run on the 7-11 in Nags Head, N.C., on the Outer Banks, which got a rare foot of snow Thursday.
"Yesterday, they were buying beer, in case they got snowed in. Today, they're buying coffee and buying me out of bread and milk and eggs," said clerk Alex James.
There have been thousands of traffic accidents in the South, including 1,100 in North Carolina alone.
"Just because a car goes doesn't mean it will stop," said tow truck driver Tim Banks, "and that's where they're getting in trouble, trying to stop."
One of the most tragic accidents was when a paramedic had his legs severed when an out-of-control car pinned him against an interstate guardrail north of Charlotte.
The temperature in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., fell to 16 degrees Friday morning, shattering the record for the date of 26 degrees set in 1991. Record lows for the date were also posted in Florence, S.C., at 13 degrees; Wilmington, N.C., 16 degrees; and Meridian, Miss., 11 degrees.
In West Palm Beach, Fla., the 35-degree reading was a record, and a combination of cold and wind made it feel like it was in the teens across central Florida.
"We couldn't believe how cold it was," said tourist Martin King, who arrived this week in Orlando, Fla., from Bristol, England. "We brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat."
The mercury had plummeted in the South on Thursday with the arrival of an arctic air mass that has had the East and Plains shivering for days.
"This is going to be around all weekend," said Chuck Hansen, public works director for Hickory, N.C.
In Indiana, the body of a man was found lying in the snow Thursday after he apparently stumbled and fell while walking through the Morgan County fairgrounds. An autopsy was scheduled.
Friday morning in Watertown, New York the temperature went up - to 13 degrees below zero. That was an improvement form of the overnight low of minus 30, said Schlesinger.
In New England, several days of subzero weather have resulted in icy harbors, bays and inlets, some of which have become impassable.
Some commuter ferry services in Massachusetts, including one that links Boston's Long Wharf to the shipyard in suburban Quincy, were suspended because of the ice. One ferryboat heading to Cape Cod had to be turned around Thursday because the inner harbor in Hyannis was frozen.
The Coast Guard has been running icebreaking ships through Massachusetts waters to make way for commercial ships.
"Ninety percent of home heating oil and other energy fuels in the Northeast are delivered by water," Coast Guard Petty Officer Megan Casey said. "We'll continue breaking ice to keep those waterways open."
Schools were closed in many states. It was the first "snow day" of the season in Syracuse, N.Y., which has received nearly 8 feet of snow this winter.
Officials in most of North Carolina and in seven northern Florida counties called off school Friday.
The cold was suspected of causing a major highway bridge in Kansas City, Mo., to buckle, closing a route used by 94,000 cars every day. Authorities said the repair could take at least a week.
In Minnesota, the coldest winter in two years continued with highs of 10 below zero.
"It's ridiculously cold," said Dave Rowan of Columbia Heights, Minn., as he fueled up his car. "I can't wait to come home and lay in my warm bed."
As John Davis kept his eye on the weather from his office he has found one silver lining in all the clouds. He studies all sorts of industries and knows some will do better the colder it gets.
"If you're a soup manufacturer or you sell hot chocolate this has been the best of times this winter," Davis told Schlesinger.
They're making out like bandits at the City Bakery in New York. The hot chocolate there is made with a secret recipe but it's no secret that the colder it gets the hotter it sells. $3.75 a cup with a home made marshmallow.