Winter storm in U.S. kills 1, likely to continue into week ahead

A powerful winter storm that ripped through large swaths of the United States' southeastern region over the weekend caused at least one death, local media reported.

A driver was killed near Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday when a tree fell on his car. Divers were searching the Neuse River in Kinston for a missing truck driver, whose tractor-trailer ran off a road and into the river, WRAL-TV reported.

Power outages were affecting more than 200,000 clients across North and South Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia as of Monday morning, according to a live update by Poweroutage.us, which tracks power knockdowns by areas.

The wintry weather also caused more than 1,400 flight cancelations over the weekend at North Carolina's Charlotte Douglas International Airport, with American Airlines saying 450 flights scheduled for Monday had been canceled, which added to the 1,200 tally it grounded on Sunday.

"Operations at our Charlotte hub will begin to normalize this morning, with scattered cancellations expected throughout the day," American Airlines said in a statement on Monday. "The majority of these cancellations will be on smaller, regional aircraft."

As of Sunday, a winter storm warning remained effective for most parts of North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia. An additional snow and sleet measuring 2 inches (5 cm) are forecast for the night through Monday, as an accumulation of more than a foot (30 cm) of snow dropped on roads during the weekend.

The extreme weather may continue to disrupt air and road traffic into the workweek, as snow- and ice-covered interstates became dangerously slippery.

Snowfall could total 12 to 20 inches (about 30 to 60 cm) over the Appalachians and into the Carolinas by Monday, the National Weather Service forecast.

"There's another one on the horizon about five days from now," CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said of an approaching storm.