The Iceman Cometh ... Again

Ice coated tree limbs and pulled down power lines in North Carolina and Virginia, and even utilities weren't spared from electrical outages.

A day after the East's latest winter storm moved into the region, almost 400,000 people remained without power early Friday in northern North Carolina and Virginia. Icy roads also caused at least two deaths.

The snow and freezing rain continued to fall Friday morning, and temperatures were expected to hover at or below freezing until midday. CBS Affiliate WUSA-TV reported the heaviest snowfall had moved out the Washington, D.C. region by noon, but that flurries would continue through the afternoon. The area has picked up about four inches since the storm started Thursday night.

Ice stretched from North Carolina's mountains to towns east of Raleigh, weighing down trees and sending limbs crashing onto power lines.

Power companies said about 375,000 customers in the state were without power early Thursday evening, most of them in the Raleigh-Durham, Greensboro and Winston-Salem areas. There were about 3,000 people without power in Virginia, most in the town of South Boston.

A Duke Power operations center in Lewisville, N.C., was among the hundreds of thousands of buildings and homes that lost power Thursday.

"We've got a generator to power the radios and dispatch equipment, but that's about it," said Jimmy Flythe, the company's district manager for business and community relations.

"I had to run an extension cord into my office because the battery in my laptop was running out of juice," Flythe said.

North Carolina's Progress Energy spokeswoman Woody Dicus said some work crews were comparing the latest storm to the December damage that left nearly 2 million customers without electricity statewide.

"We were hoping it wouldn't get that bad," she said.

Virginia's main problem was snow, much of it falling on some of the same areas that got up to 2 feet a week ago.

To the north, as much as 8 inches of snow fell over two days from Charlottesville, Va., to Washington, while the Richmond area got 1 to 3 inches of snow, rain and freezing rain.

South and west of Richmond, there was mostly freezing rain - up to a half-inch in some places.

"It really is getting to the outer edges of ridiculous," Gov. Mark Warner said on his monthly radio show.

Virginia has already spent $80 million in snow operations this season, and that figure will likely top $100 million before winter ends - double the budgeted amount, state transportation spokesman Jim Jennings said.

"We'll absorb the cost in other ways," Jennings said. "You won't see the medians mowed quite so much this summer."

Winter storm warnings extended northward to Philadelphia and winter weather advisories were in effect into central New Jersey.

The storm closed some schools in the Washington, D.C., area. Maryland state police said traffic slowed to a crawl, but the latest storm was easier to deal with.

"After the 28-inch record snow fall last week, I think we can handle 2-3 inches," spokesman Thornnie Rouse said.

A 19-year-old died after his vehicle hit a patch of ice and overturned Thursday near Stoneville, N.C., the state Highway Patrol said.

In Virginia, a skidding vehicle killed a 41-year-old woman who had gotten out of her car after it slipped off Interstate 64 in New Kent County on Thursday.

In Arkansas and North Texas, many schools were closed for a third straight day Thursday, as drizzle fell across the area, and overnight temperatures dipped below freezing. Eleven motorists in the two states have been killed since the snow and sleet started falling Sunday.