Snow, ice wreak havoc on East Coast

The latest storm in a particularly harsh winter is causing problems along the East Coast. Just two weeks after a snow storm caught southern states by surprise and forced many commuters to abandon their cars, ice and snow are burying southeast and New England states again.

Picutred: Heavy snow fell in the afternoon after a brief period of heavy rain. Two people braved the snow as they pass by a paper store on Boylston Street with a Valentine’s Day display.

Pedestrians walked home on a Rose Kennedy Greenway that was not so green.

Lindsey Ruscak, a teacher at Wellesley Middle School, wiped off her windshield after school.

A flowering cherry tree was frozen in mid-bloom in Summerville, S.C., after a rare winter ice storm swept across the South. More than 400,000 customers lost power across the Southeast and at least 13 deaths were caused by the storm.

A sign warned drivers of winter weather as they traveled a bleak section of Highway 141 in Norcross, Ga. The scene is the opposite of what drivers experienced during the last winter storm two weeks ago when every major artery of metropolitan Atlanta was clogged.

Ice formed on the life-size bronze statue of singer James Brown in downtown Augusta, Ga. Georgia’s “Garden City’’ became Ice City, with thousands of homes losing power and felled trees shutting down roadways. A city known for lush golf links and sultry summers found itself in the bull’s-eye of a massive winter storm, raising the specter of another Georgia city being laid on its back by snow and ice.

Georgia Power workers and contractors from Wright Tree Service cleared a fallen tree in Smyrna, Ga. The tree fell on a power line, cutting electricity to area residents. Ice and snow in the area made travel treacherous and cut electricity to thousands of customers.

A crew assessed the situation in front of a downed transformer in the road in Doraville, Ga. About 175,000 customers were without power Wednesday afternoon, power companies reported.

Bread supply was low at a grocery store after people prepared for the storm in Lilburn outside Atlanta. The deadly winter storm brought heavy snow, freezing rain and a possibly historic accumulation of ice to the southeastern United States on Wednesday, causing hundreds of thousands of power outages and treacherous driving conditions, meterologists said.

A firefighter looked on as a jack-knifed truck was pulled on the roadway on Interstate 75 in Marietta, Ga. From Texas to the South’s business hub in Atlanta, roads were slick with ice, more than 350,000 homes and businesses lost electricity, and a wintry mix fell in many areas.

In North Carolina, police officers worked to assist motorists as they attempted to drive up a hill that was covered in snow in Charlotte.

Snow plows cleared downtown lanes on Interstate 75/85 in Atlanta during the storm on Wednesday.

Motorists came to a standstill on a freeway as it snowed in Charlotte, N.C.

A snowplow found itself in a ditch after sliding off a snow-covered North Carolina Highway 54 near Saxapahaw. Road conditions quickly deteriorated in South and North Carolina as the winter storm hit on Wednesday afternoon.

Cars that lost traction sat on the eastbound ramp from Joseph Bryan Boulevard to Holden Road during a snowfall in Greensboro, N.C.

Northbound on Interstate 85 was at a standstill at rush-hour in Durham, N.C. Snow fell hard and fast in central North Carolina, resulting in snarled traffic, abandoned cars and vehicular accidents by mid-afternoon.

Canceled flights were shown at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport in Morrisville, N.C. More than 100 flights were canceled by 2 p.m.

This photo shows the roof of a building at University Hills Baptist Church that collapsed in Charlotte, N.C. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Wednesday and into Thursday covering 95 of the state’s 100 counties.

Further up the coast, shoppers waited in long lines at a grocery store as many people stocked up on items ahead of the approaching snowstorm, in Alexandria, Va. Weather forecasts predicted 5 to 10 inches of snow overnight in the Washington, D.C., area.

Young people made “snow angel’’ shapes in front of the Lincoln Memorial as the snow storm hit Washington, D.C., on Feb. 13. The eastern United States, in the grips of one of the most brutal winters in recent memory, braced for what forecasters warned could be the worst broadside yet — a massive storm with the season’s heaviest snowfall.

Snow arced in the air as it was removed from the driveway at the White House in Washington. After pummeling wide swaths of the South, a winter storm dumped nearly a foot of snow in Washington as it marched Northeast and threatened more power outages, traffic headaches, and widespread closures for millions of residents.

At dawn, four trucks plowed snow on a major road during the snowstorm in Arlington, Va.