(AP) -- It could be days before icy, treacherous conditions improve for areas of the South hit by a wintry blast.

The weather has sent cars sliding off the road, emptied grocery shelves and had officials watching ice-laden powerlines and tree limbs.

Meanwhile, New York City is about to confront its third snowstorm in less than three weeks. The storm will hit a day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration admitted a series of mistakes in its handling of a Christmas weekend blizzard and

promised immediate changes.

In the South, low temperatures are expected to keep snow and ice on the ground a day after snow ranging from several inches to more than a foot blanketed states from Louisiana to the Carolinas.

It's a region where many cities have only a handful of snow plows, if any.

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Earlier story

SC residents face icy roads, power outages

The precipitation is gone, but South Carolina residents are still confronting power outages and icy roads.

A storm that dumped up to 9 inches of snow and ice on parts of the state moved out of the area early Tuesday.

Gov. Mark Sanford has ordered state offices in 24 counties in the northwestern half of the state to remain closed Tuesday. Other state offices were to open two hours later than usual.

More than 11,000 residents had no electricity Tuesday morning.

Progress Energy had the biggest problems from Cheraw to Lake City and Sumter, with more than 7,600 customers without service.

Derrec Becker with the state emergency preparedness division says secondary roads are the main concern. Temperatures ranged from 28 degrees in Rock Hill to 33 in Beaufort, so there has been virtually no melting.

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