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Virginia Governor Declares Storm Emergency as Snow and Ice Bear Down on Mid-Atlantic States 

Children play in the snow after a snowstorm in New York City, US, February 9, 2025. (Reuters)
Children play in the snow after a snowstorm in New York City, US, February 9, 2025. (Reuters)
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Virginia Governor Declares Storm Emergency as Snow and Ice Bear Down on Mid-Atlantic States 

Children play in the snow after a snowstorm in New York City, US, February 9, 2025. (Reuters)
Children play in the snow after a snowstorm in New York City, US, February 9, 2025. (Reuters)

A wintry mess was bearing down on mid-Atlantic states Tuesday with forecasts of significant snow and ice accumulations prompting warnings of potential power outages.

The National Weather Service said travel would become treacherous Tuesday through early Wednesday in much of Virginia and West Virginia.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Monday declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, allowing state agencies to assist local governments. Schools and government offices throughout Virginia were closed Tuesday.

The heaviest snow, up to 10 inches (25.4 centimeters), was forecast in portions of northern and central Virginia and eastern West Virginia. Ice accumulations could range from a glaze in Kentucky and West Virginia to a half-inch (1.3 centimeters) in the Roanoke Valley of southwest Virginia, the weather service said. Power outages and tree damage were likely in places with heavy ice buildups.

“Did you think winter was over? Think again!” the weather service's office in Blacksburg, Virginia, said in a post on the social media platform X.

Appalachian Power, which serves 1 million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, said it has requested 700 additional workers from neighboring utilities to assist with problems by Tuesday morning.

In northern Virginia, the National Park Service closed a portion of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, a narrow highway that winds its way through woods along the Potomac River. The parkway connects multiple small national park sites and has historically been a trouble spot during winter storms for abandoned cars that created a slalom course for snowplows and other vehicles.

Winter storm warnings extended from Kentucky to southern New Jersey, and a flood watch was posted for a wide swath of Kentucky, Tennessee, southwest Virginia and northern Georgia. The snow-and-ice mix was expected to become all rain as temperatures climb by Wednesday afternoon.

A separate storm system is set to bring heavy snow from Kansas and Missouri to the Great Lakes on Wednesday, the weather service said.

Dangerous cold was forecast Tuesday from an Arctic air mass stretching from Portland, Oregon, to the Great Lakes.

The temperature was expected to bottom out Tuesday morning at minus 33 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 36 degrees Celsius) in Butte, Montana, where over the past two winters at least five people died due to cold exposure, said Brayton Erickson, executive director of the Butte Rescue Mission. Advocates for the homeless in the city of about 35,000 planned to be out on the streets distributing sleeping bags, jackets, mittens and other cold weather gear to anyone who needs them, Erickson said.

“When it gets this cold, we kind of pull out all the stops,” he said. “Having all those resources available literally can save their life or keep them from frostbite.”

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Heartbroken Brits Abandon Pets as Living Costs Bite

Rising numbers of pets are being left at the Mayhew shelter in London as owners no longer able to afford their care take the heartbreaking decision to try to re-home them. Ben STANSALL / AFP
Rising numbers of pets are being left at the Mayhew shelter in London as owners no longer able to afford their care take the heartbreaking decision to try to re-home them. Ben STANSALL / AFP
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Heartbroken Brits Abandon Pets as Living Costs Bite

Rising numbers of pets are being left at the Mayhew shelter in London as owners no longer able to afford their care take the heartbreaking decision to try to re-home them. Ben STANSALL / AFP
Rising numbers of pets are being left at the Mayhew shelter in London as owners no longer able to afford their care take the heartbreaking decision to try to re-home them. Ben STANSALL / AFP

Staff at a London animal shelter have seen more than their fair share of abandoned pets over the years, from kittens in boxes to budgies dropped outside in the dead of night.
But lately there has been a surge in the numbers as people make the heartbreaking decision to give up their animal companions, no longer able to afford to care for their pets.

Struggling animal owners are feeling "a lot of heartache... and also shame and frustration that they're having to make these decisions," said Elvira Meucci-Lyons, the boss of the Mayhew shelter in Kensal Green, west London.

"They come to us because they feel they have no choice," she said.

"Behind every animal we take in there's a human story."

The small center has taken in more than 130 animals this year alone. It is part of a wider rise across the UK, where tens of thousands of pets have been abandoned since the Covid-19 pandemic and the onset of a cost-of-living crisis.

In the first few months of this year, more than 5,700 abandonments have been reported to the RSPCA, the world's oldest animal welfare organization -- a 32 percent rise on the same period in 2024.

Last year saw around 22,500 cases reported in total, up more than seven percent on 2023.
The challenge of affording animal care poses a heart-wrenching problem for many in Britain, a nation of dog and cat lovers where half the adult population -- more than 26 million people -- has a pet, according to the RSPCA.

And it has hit the country's poorest especially hard. Staff at Mayhew said some owners were having to choose between feeding themselves or their pets.

Several pets at the center -- including dogs Brownie, a one-year-old toy poodle, and Astro, a pocket American bully -- were brought in because their owners lost their homes due to financial troubles.

Stories like these are "the most upsetting", Meucci-Lyons said, because in hard times pet owners "need their lovely animals more than ever and the dog or cat doesn't want to do without their owner."

Rising vet bills
Mayhew staff said more pets were also arriving at the center in Kensal Green in poor health, often because their owners cannot afford veterinary bills.

Felix's case is typical. The muscular nine-year-old tomcat was playing with a length of string. But he arrived with tooth problems, with his owners bringing him to the shelter and saying they couldn't afford to keep him.
"We're seeing quite a lot more needing dental work nowadays," said Mayhew spokeswoman Olivia Patt.

The pandemic saw a spike in pet ownership under government lockdowns, and a subsequent wave of people then giving up their animals as normal lifestyles resumed.

Some people are returning lockdown pets, several years on. But RSPCA spokesman David Bowles told AFP that living costs, which soared during the pandemic, have become a major factor driving abandonments.

"We are now five years on from the first lockdown under Covid. The RSPCA believes the cost-of-living crisis is really impacting people's ability to pay for vet treatment in particular," he said.

UK inflation soared above 11 percent in October 2022, the highest level in more than four decades, and while it has slowed in the last few years, people are still feeling the squeeze.

Prices for many items including pet food have gone up by around 25 percent.
At Mayhew, staff have been doing all they can, from providing struggling owners with pet food and animal care packages, to offering free preventative treatments.

But the pressure has pushed the shelter's bubbly staff to their limits.

"We are run off our feet, we can't keep up with the demand," said Meucci-Lyons.

Even though the staff are comforted by knowing they make a difference, "every day it is heartbreaking -- we go to bed at night thinking about the dogs and cats we can't help," she said.