Now . Fortunately a lot of the rainfall has started to taper off and he can see a little bit of clearing in the western and southwestern parts of the midlands at a big line still has to come through. Its right now and central parts ofofeorgia, even though the rain has start to taper off, we have been noticing, on radar that a lot of the freezing rain and even sleet now in the central and northern part of the state from rock hill all the way to sharad, the cold air is starting to drag through and that freezing rain could start affecting our community. We still have a freeze rain advisory for newberry, fairfield, kershaw and lee counties in effect right now through 12 noon today. The temperatures right now, it is cold, 36 newberry, 43 saluda, 39 lexington, 39 columbia and a bishopville 30 for degrees. As of 6 oclock, the wind chills are starting to affect the northern half of the midlands. It feels like 25 winnsboro, even camden 26, here in columbia feels like 32 degrees, point where the temperatures are starting to affect us. When the kids had out to the bus stop, 35 degrees, they will need their winter jacket and raingear. We may deal with a wintry mix around 33 degrees. Once we start warming up by 12 oclock, 30 for degrees, and then the heavy rainfall and the strong winds come in and we will be dealing with the strong windfalls winds. As far as the roads, give yourself extra time. Some of the road all of the roads are wet, some could start getting slick. And casey right now no issues from knox abbot all the way down to i 26 both north and south directions. Coming from lake murray boulevard from i 26 to the willie b, 23 minutes. From the airport to downtown a 60 minute commute. We will take a look at the in the next couple of days. Both south and North Carolina are expecting a mixed bag of moisture that includes possibly rain, sleet, and snow. According to duke energy when rain starts to freeze, it once there is a quarter of an inch that is when tree branches fall, onto power lines. We are taking an uptothe minute look of the Power Outages in our area. Right now, we are hearing a little over 430 outages in Richland County, most of them in the columbia area. Of course we will continue to monitor the situation throughout the morning. If you have a power outage you need to report, or if it happens later in the day write down this number 888333four for 65 and keep it here. Another problem with potential threats of icy rain is that roadways can become very dangerous to drive on. The Highway Patrol says to be smart and be prepareded coat if you are going to be traveling. Take a blanket and food items, make sure your phone is charged. As always, call storm storm for seven we will be glad to send a true brought trooper out to assist that person. Certainly better to be safe than sorry. Remember that number is asterisk 47. They have troopers in place to patrol those roadways to help if need be. 3 he also say to make sure to install and maintain Carbon Monoxide alarms inside your home to provide Early Warning 3 the winter storm is affecting air travel just up the road in charlotte. American airlines. Southeast and the winter storm is affecting air travel, just up the road in charlotte. Going back to american airlines. The company has also taken precautions to delay or cancel flights at other airports arcoss the east coast including. Washington dc. Philadelphia and new york city. 3 news 19 will continue to follow the latest on this storm throughout the day. You can keep up with everything on the forecast by going to our website wltx dot com. Also be sure to fofoow you can keep up with everything on the forecast by going to our website wltx. Com. Also, be sure to follow our weather team on twitter, and you can also download our free weather app. The Richland CountySheriffs Department is taking time to make sure you know what accident active shooter. They spoke with people at the Progressive Church of our lord in columbia last night giving them ideas on what they can do to help save lives. Sheriff leon lott says they have been holding these types of prerentations for years, but since the tragic shooting in charleston, they have ramped up their outreach. A deputy explained three key points to churchgoers. Avoid, deny, defend. That is the three main topics avoided if you can, get away from the situation, deny it, locked doors, shut dies often the defend. If you have no other way out, defend yourself and protect as many people as you can. It takes about three minutes for Law Enforcement to arrive at an active shooter scene. In that time they hope that people can use the information they learned last night to save lives. Two days before mexin nationals to get ids from the consulate and cant separate is called a consulate on wheels wilson this week it made its way over to camden. Id cards and birth certificates. Over 600 people are expected to benefit from the service. The problem is setting up appointments. People have to call or go online and the Registration Service is for all of the offices across the country. We want to tell the mexican nationals, try to plan these kind of events because these attend these kind of events because these events are for them. Avoid any other place to get an id because signs sometimes it is very difficult. The last day for the consulate on wheels is sunday, their next trip to the state is not until february. South carolina usually receives about 20 visits a year from the mexican consulate. According to the Us Department of state South Carolina has 14 consulates from different countries. Lets move on to meet our mom of the day, her name is carolyn johnson. She is a mother of two and was nominated by her daughter kendra, kendra tells us her is very driven. She supports her children, and grandchild in so many ways despite the struggles and tragedies shhas face. Her mother is a special gift from god, and they say that she is their angel on earth and she she is everything a mother should be, and more. Congratulations to carolyn. If you want to nominate a mom for mom of the day had our website wltx. Com, we have a banner that you can click there to send in your nomination. Time now for our word of the day, todays word is [ inaudible] which means rascal or a mischievous person. I guess [laughter] that is some old english right there. This is derived from rascal. That is what i was going to say. I am sorry, i jumped in there. Thats okay we were on the same page. Try to slip that into your vernacular today. Tweet at us if you can think of today. People living along the east coast are bracing for the worst this morning. Still to come on news 19 this morning, blizzard like conditions, rara is causing oblems at our nations capital. How people are preparing. Plus, what Officials Say is bac3f here at welcome. How you doin . Good how are you . So today youre gonna choose a mobile office. You can choose this Chevy Silverado which offers built in 4g lte wifi. Or you can choose this ford f150, which doesnt offer wifi. But to make up for it, we added a trailer, a satellite antenna, and dolores. Hey fellas Group Laughter what . So, which one do you want . I pick the chevy. Definitely. Or, get this dependable silverado all star edition with a total value of seven thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. We continuing to follow developments with this new start. From Kershaw CountySchool Districts, there is a two hour delay this morning in the North Central area. That means that those schools will only open two hours later than normal. That is in the north and central area. Students who ride the bus in that area should report to their bus stop two hours later than usual. All other schools in Kershaw County will operate on a normal schedule. Once again, that is for the schools in the North Central area of Kershaw County. They are on a two hour delay this morning. We have crews from all over the state in the midlands area keeping an eye on this. That includes the Emergency Management division and with the division, i believe we have derek on the phone. In morning. And morning, you guys opened up early this morning around for 30 a. M. What has been the plan for you guys this morning . Emergency Operations Center with emd staff, and select state agencies such as the Highway Patrol and department of Public Safety. And as several others just to facilitate any sort of request for resources from county Emergency Management an address. We will be regularly doing updates throughout the morning. The storm is just getting started. Derek, i know a lot of what you guys do is preventative measures just to be better safe than sorry, what do you want to remind people of this morning as they get ready to head out the door for work and school . The department is just getting started, conditions continue to very rapidly, we are already getting reports of 2 inches of snow in cherokee county. That could change, as the day progresses. It will be very important to monitor the weather. Pay attention to the media reports throughout the morning. What is the biggest threat wintry mix . The traffic conditions, obviously, will be a big issue for us, we hope that people are giving themselves time to get where they need to go, if they have to go out and into the elements. If there are emergency alerts coming from local Public Safety officials, heed those warnings, Pay Attention to the weather alerts. We do those for your safety. Of course, safety is key, what are you guys seeing right now . I know this is very early in the storm system , to come into our area, what are you cursing at this hour . We are getting reports of snow and freezing rain in the upstate. Several counties have artie closed government offices for the day. Lots of School Delays surrounding the state. Several other counties are doing delayed opening for government offices, specifically in the pee dee regions. We expect those reports to continue at this point, with the roads and conditions possibly getting worse, the suggestion is always. If you do not have to go out today, stay off the roadways, if you have to go to the upstate, give yourself time to get where you need to go. Be prepared for hazardous Road Conditions, give yourself plenty of time, go slow, leave a lot of room ahead of you and the car in front of you and so forth. Before we let you go, anything else you want to add or mention to her viewers this morning . Absolutely you can check realtime Road Conditions at sc dot. Org. Derek becker with the Emergency Management division. Thank you so much for that update. Now, we know Fairfield County is one of the areas that is expected to get hardest hit with this freezing rain. We have chuck ringwald out there right now, we are going to go to him and get an update. What are you seeing out there . Reporter its pretty chilly, we have a lot of rain and its pretty windy out here, you can see i am bundled up, my hat, my go out here. We are right outside the Fairfield County sheriff department. I have the sheriff here with me. Tell us a little bit about how you guys are preparing, or have prepared for today . Thank you for having me, the main thing is having fourwheel drive vehicles on the road today in weather like this. Right now it is just cold rain, but things are expected to get worse. Reporter the temperature dropping, you said the biggest worry for you guys as those roads. Tell us what you want to tell the people that are at home . Please be careful on the roads. We will be monitoring Traffic Control and continue to monitor the weather also. Reporter if they do not need to be out, they should not be out, right . Please stay out please stay at home if you do not need to be on the road reporter anything you want to add . Should they had to the store to and staying warm and dry . Stay at home unless you absolutely have to get on the roads. If we can help anyone, be a Good Neighbor and we will come out and help and check on the citizens of Fairfield County. Reporter you said dot was also out here putting salt on the roads, just making sure and ice over . I have been on out on the road often on all night. We are being prepared. Reporter thank you very much. I know you are super busy and you have not gotten much sleep tonight. Thank you so much. We will be her for the rest of the show in Fairfield County, chuck ringwald, news 19 wltx thank you. Stay warm and safe out there. Now we want to send things over to meteorologist, efran afante. The sheriff mentioned they are having cold rain there, what are using on the radar right now . That is exactly right, we see this rain all throughout the midlands even northern midland you can see the impact right now, the bulk of the heavy rainfall we have had this morning is already starting to move through. We already have freezing rain and winter conditions all in the upstate along the north and South Carolina state line all the way into the pee dee region. Impact as of yet. You can see where we actually have we have reports right now showing that we could have freezing rain. Now starting to move into the areas into Kershaw County, the northern parts moving into possibly Fairfield County, the bulk of the rainout is along and east of i 26. We still do have a freezing rain advisory. This covers all of our northern communities from kershaw, lee, fairfield and newberry counties and 12 until 12 new today. Those are the only ones under the advisory. Temperatures are cold, 36 newberry, 39 columbia, 34 bishopville a tad warmer and orangeburg 40. The wind chill will pay play a very critical over the next several hours. 32 columbia, 29 sumpter, 24 winnsboro, we will be dealing with a lot more precipitation. As we go throughout the morning, we could be experiencing rain and freezing rain in the northern half of the midlands. We saw a lot of heavy rainfall coming through. As we get transitioning from of this will start turning into just rain, but very heavy rainfall is expected right as we get into the afternoon and evening it will start tapering off. I early tomorrow morning, with a lot of my sister returning in the cold temperatures we could see a snowflake, or two, and the northern half in the northern half of the midlands by the end of the day. Forecasted highs today are going to be at the freezing mark in the northern communities and slightly above freezing from the central and southern midlands. Here columbia 36, as we get into the afternoon very heavy rainfall and strong winds gusting up to 20 Miles Per Hour. Overnight 32 degrees with the potential of a wintry mix in the Early Morning hours after lows to the lowes to the north are in the upper 20s and the central and southern midlands into the lower 30s. When all is said and done, 40 degrees for tomorrow, as guys begin to clear into sunday with a high of 52, and then up to 59 by monday. As far as the roadways right now, no issues are being reported. All the roads are slick, no going along sunset boulevard. If youre coming from shaw air jackson gate, 39 minutes. 3 a behind the scenes look at what you dont see when you watch news 19. Students at ballentiti e behind the scenes look at what you do not see when you watch news 19. Students took part in a recent tour of our station at our station and put together the short video. Take a look. We are here at news 19. Of their information. [inaudible] lee is our audio man, he will be taking care of all of the sound. They are coming, they are getting ready. Theres so much more that goes on around the newsroom. We do not wait for the noon news to put the news up and we put it up as so as we get it. That is the way it looks if you go to wltx. Com. The middle monitor shows us how people are using it. Right now, there are 530 for people on wltx. Com. You can see which stories are getting the most views right now. 52 are on a desktop computer and 5 are on a tablet. Here we are at the control room, this is where the anchors get ready for the show. How do you get ready for the show . Well, you know, that is a very good question. I spend every day getting ready for the show, even on days when i am not working. I am still dialed into whats happening with the news. But, when i come in at 11, i spent 3045 minutes just reading over my script making sure that we have everything we need. Then i spent about 20 minutes putting all of this junk on. Shit what is it like to be about a journalist . About 15 mac mac mac talk to us about what its like eating a journalist. 6 27, from the Weather Center you whats being covered. We are watching Winter Weather. Good morning to you, i am deon. And i am savannah levins. Our meteorologist, efran afante has been keeping track of this every step of the way. We have seen rain move in, expecting it to freeze in some places as the morning gets colder. You are absolutely right. Radar is starting to show that we can potentially have some freezing rain developing already in parts of and parts of Kershaw County, going down into eastern parts of fairfield rain, still just rain. I stepped outside, pretty decent rainfall is now coming down. Moderate to heavy rainfall along and east of i 26. Even though there is a break right now to the sou