10 photos show the beauty and danger of the 'mammoth' winter storm that pummeled parts of the US Southeast with over 1 foot of snow

Get the Full StoryKathy Kmonicek AP

A massive storm pelted southern states with freezing rain, snow, and ice, over the weekend and left over 300,000 people without power across the Carolinas and Virginia Monday.

Officials declared states of emergency in Virginia and North Carolina, where Gov. Roy Cooper called it a "mammoth" storm.

Residents were warned against going outside, as emergency management teams remained in hard-hit areas to clear roads into Monday.

A massive storm pelted southern states with freezing rain, snow, and ice over the weekend and left over 300,000 people without power across the Carolinas and Virginia.

By Monday morning, 250,000 were still without power, according to PowerOutage.US.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents to take all possible precautions against the "mammoth" storm.

"Enjoy the beauty, but respect the danger," Cooper said during a Sunday morning news conference about the storm, which has caused more than 190,000 outages in the state alone. "Don't be fooled, this storm is treacherous."

Some residents heeded Cooper's advice more closely than others, as the snow cast a troublesome but serene winter wonderland across the state.

See how some southern states fared under the heavy snow and ice.The storm began to dump snow on North Carolina Saturday night and had blanketed parts of the state in nearly half a foot by Sunday morning.

Rod Wilbourn via REUTERS

Management agencies were dispatched Sunday to areas hit especially hard, including North Carolina's National Guard, who tackled mountainous areas in the western part of the state that got more than 18 inches of snow.

Chuck Burton AP

Source: WNCT

North Carolina and Virginia police had responded to hundreds of snow-related traffic accidents by Sunday afternoon, with snow and ice throwing cars, trucks, and tractor-trailers off course.

Allen G. Breed AP

Source: AP

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