There were only a few inches of snow in Atlanta on Friday and Saturday, but with road conditions worsening, the NBA decided to postpone the home Hawks' game against the visiting Houston Rockets.
The NBA said the decision was made “to prioritize the safety of players, fans and staff due to severe weather and dangerous ice conditions in the Atlanta area.”
The league said the date for a rescheduled game will be announced later. The Rockets team flight arrived in Atlanta before the postponement was announced.
A winter storm dumped snow and ice on the Atlanta area on Friday and roads were expected to refreeze Saturday night.
Power outage numbers in Atlanta spiked Friday night as trees falling onto power lines became a widespread problem. More than 110,000 customers were without power, primarily in the Atlanta area.
On Friday, four passengers were injured after a Delta Air Lines plane bound for Minneapolis aborted takeoff. Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said the plane experienced an engine problem.
Atlanta residents head to Piedmont Park for walking and sledding on Friday
Snow covers parts of Atlanta after a storm on Friday, while streets were largely abandoned.
While the problem occurred during the snowstorm that caused widespread cancellations and delays at Atlanta, the world's busiest airport, officials could not say whether the problem was weather-related.
The 201 passengers, two pilots and five flight attendants on board evacuated the Boeing 757-300 using inflatable slides and were transported by bus back to a concourse. One of the injured passengers was taken to a hospital, while three were treated at the airport for minor injuries.
The storm was moving out to sea off the East Coast on Saturday, leaving behind a forecast of snow showers in the Appalachian Mountains and New England. But temperatures were expected to fall after sunset in the south, increasing the risk that melted snow would refreeze, turning roads treacherously glazed with ice.
“I definitely don't think everything is going to completely melt,” said Scott Carroll, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Atlanta. “Especially on the secondary roads there will probably still be some mud.”
Major airports, including those in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, continued to report disruptions. While flights were operational, airlines canceled and delayed more flights after Friday's weather slowed travel.
A man uses a snowplow after a snow storm Friday in Atlanta
As of Saturday afternoon, about 1,000 flights in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were canceled or delayed, according to tracking software FlightAware. The security lines at the terminal were also extremely long.
Sarah Waithera Wanyoike, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, arrived at the world's busiest airport before dawn Friday to catch an Ethiopian Airlines flight to her job in Zimbabwe.
The plane boarded after a delay but never departed, returning passengers to the gate after taxiing for six hours. Wanyoike said his luggage remained on the plane and he did not dare try to return home because he was told to return to the gate before dawn.
“Last night people slept with their babies on the floor,” Wanyoike said Saturday.
Delta Air Lines, the largest airline at the airport, said Saturday that it was “working to stabilize” operations at its Atlanta hub and anticipated the “resumption of reliable service this weekend.”