RALEIGH, N.C. -- Wake County students who spent the night at their schools were expected to go home Thursday morning.
Icy roads forced many buses to turn around Wednesday and prevented parents from picking up children. More than 50 schools around the county were forced to serve as hotels for students, who watched videos and ate snacks that the school provided. Principals and volunteers cared for the students.
Buses were scheduled to pick up the students Thursday morning, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, Gov. Mike Easley urged residents to stay off the roads so that highway crews could sand and salt them.
"I am urging citizens to cooperate with local officials so that we can clear the highways of ice to ensure safe travel," Easley said. "DOT crews have been out all night scraping the roads and spreading salt, but their work is not yet complete. If people can stay home, especially this morning, I am encouraging them to do so."
The governor declared a state of emergency in Wake County late Wednesday after a small amount of snow caused freezing roads to ice over quickly. Shelters were opened in the state Administration Building and the state Department of Transportation building downtown so stranded drivers could find a place to stay.
Despite requests from the state, Wake County officials didn't open any shelters Wednesday night, according to a statement from Easley's office.
More winter weather is expected Thursday night and over the weekend across much of the state.
On Wednesday, a scant inch or two of snow brought havoc to a metropolitan area of more than 1 million. Skittish school administrators and employers closed early, launching traffic tie-ups that turned 20 minute commutes into treks taking six hours or more.
Snow fell across much of the state, with more than an inch falling in some areas as the storm moved eastward. The snow slowed travel on roads and highways, caused hundreds of accidents and forced early school closings in many areas.
Forecasts had been for just a light dusting, but by early afternoon, snowfall of 1-1/2 inches had been been reported in Warrenton and Henderson. An inch had also been reported in Littleton in Halifax County and in Louisburg, the National Weather Service said.
Areas east of Raleigh, particularly along the Interstate 95 corridor, could see about an inch of snow, said Mike Strickler, a hydrometeorologist with the weather service.
Strickler said a trough -- which originated over the West Coast -- brought colder temperatures late last week. That mixed with a disturbance in the jetstream, which brought precipitation from the Ohio Valley.
"It's produced a little more just east of (Raleigh) than we anticipated," he said. "A lot of systems dry up when they get east of the mountains, but this one is still cranking."
It was quite a change from last week, when temperatures reached the 70s in some areas.
"You see these swings in the winter," Strickler said. "You get to the 60s and 70s, then a powerful cold front comes through and you're locked back into winter."
Snow fell for more than 4 hours when the air was very dry and temperatures in the mid-20s, National Weather Service forecaster Brandon Locklear said.
"What happened is, you had the initial snow set in, and you had some melting from the compression of people driving on the roads, followed rapidly by refreezing," he said.
Traffic Snarled On Slick Roads
The snow froze almost on contact with surfaces left frigid after two days of below-freezing temperatures, bringing eastbound traffic on Interstate 40 into Raleigh to a standstill and also halted travel on the city's Interstate 440 Beltline.
The state Department of Transportation was forced to reroute eastbound traffic away from a 10-mile stretch of I-40 west of Raleigh.
Traffic jams caused by the icy roads were compounded by an early-afternoon rush when schools systems and companies closed early, unleashing thousands of vehicles.
The snow and road conditions caught road crews by surprise, and they struggled to apply melting agents to jammmed roads that had been untreated.
Officials reported 98 accidents in Cary and more than 150 in Durham because of the storm.
Raleigh police said they had cleared 422 accidents between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. and still had another 60 that were pending. Police respond to 46 accidents around the city during an average day, officials said.
Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker told NBC-17 late Wednesday that 200 workers in 25 trucks would salt and sand local roads throughout the night to ensure drivers don't see a repeat of Wednesday's gridlock on Thursday.
"I'm not satisfied with the results, but I am satisfied with the effort" to clear the roads, Meeker said.
One man took advantage of the stalled traffic, selling leftover pizzas to idling drivers at the intersection of Wake Forest and Six Forks roads in Raleigh after his nearby Papa John's outlet closed early for the night.
Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said most major roads around the city were open Thursday morning, and crews continued to work on secondary routes.
Officers spent much of the night checking on abandoned vehicles to make sure that people were not stranded in them, Sughrue said. Police are trying to contact the owners of abandoned vehicles that are in travel lanes and might pose a hazard to others.
The state Highway Patrol had received more than 550 calls for service -- most for accidents -- around Raleigh from midnight until 6:30 p.m., Sgt. Everett Clendenin said. The patrol would normally handle about 150 calls for service per day, he said.
Clendenin also said there was a backlog of about 100 calls for service by sundown.
There were also eight reported wrecks on I-95 in Halifax, Nash and Northampton counties, though the Highway Patrol had no reports of fatalities or major injuries.
"The Highway Patrol has said the roads are extremely slick and that people should stay home or get off the roads," said Patty McQuillan, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.
Raleigh Rocked by Surprise Snow
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Yep, we sure do........
I am excited about it but I will surely stay put at home this time. I was at work yesterday and noticed the snow sticking to the road so I left at 12:18 in the afternnon to come home and usually it only takes me 1 hour to get home and it took me 5 hours and 1 minute. VERY frightning as that was my first time ever driving in snow. I'll NEVER do it again unless I absolutley have to.
I wonder exactly just what all we will get this weekend.
Everyone stay warm and safe :
I wonder exactly just what all we will get this weekend.
Everyone stay warm and safe :

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I was at school (NC State) yesterday and I had to walk a couple of miles to my car because the buses stopped running to the park and ride. Traffic was so bad that they didn't move at all while I was walking down the sidewalk the whole way to my car. There were also many, many wrecks along my way.
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