An American Airlines plane undergoes deicing procedures on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023, at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas. (Lola Gomez/The Dallas Morning News by way of AP)
By PAUL J. WEBER and JEFF MARTIN (Associated Press)
AUSTIN, Texas — Winter weather introduced ice to a large swath of the United States on Tuesday, inflicting the cancellation of greater than 1,700 flights nationwide, bringing visitors to a standstill on an interstate by way of Arkansas and knocking out energy to hundreds of Texans.
As the ice storm superior eastward on Tuesday, watches and warnings stretched from the western heel of Texas all the best way to West Virginia. Several rounds of combined precipitation — together with freezing rain and sleet — had been in retailer for a lot of areas by way of Wednesday, that means some areas may very well be hit a number of instances, the federal Weather Prediction Center warned.
Numerous auto collisions had been reported in Austin, Texas, with not less than one fatality in accordance to the Austin Fire Department. In Travis County, Texas, which incorporates Austin, police and sheriff’s deputies have been responding to new crashes about each three minutes since 8 a.m., in accordance to the Austin-Travis County Traffic Report Page.
More than 900 flights to or from main U.S. airport hub Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and greater than 250 to or from Dallas Love Field had been canceled or delayed Tuesday, in accordance to the monitoring service FlightAware. At Dallas-Fort Worth, greater than 50% of Tuesday’s scheduled flights had been canceled by Tuesday afternoon.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines canceled greater than 560 flights Tuesday and delayed greater than 350 extra, FlightAware reported.
About 7,000 energy outages in Texas had been reported as of late Tuesday morning, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott mentioned following a briefing in Austin on the worsening circumstances. He emphasised the outages had been due to components equivalent to ice on energy traces or downed bushes, and never the efficiency of the Texas energy grid that buckled for days throughout a lethal winter storm in 2021.
Fleets of emergency automobiles had been fanned out amongst 1,600 roads impacted by the freeze.
One Texas state trooper was hospitalized with critical accidents after being struck by a driver who misplaced management of their car, mentioned Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“The roadways are very hazardous right now. We cannot overemphasize that,” Abbott mentioned.
In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency Tuesday due to the ice storm. In her declaration, Sanders cited the “likelihood of numerous downed power lines” and mentioned highway circumstances have created a backlog of deliveries by business drivers.
One of the primary thoroughfares by way of Arkansas — Interstate 40 — was ice-coated and “extremely hazardous” in the Forrest City space on Tuesday, in accordance to town’s hearth division. Pictures posted on social media confirmed the crumpled cab of a semi-trailer.
The division responded to two unhealthy wrecks and about 15 different crashes Tuesday morning, Division Chief Jeremy Sharp mentioned by phone. In lots of the crashes, the drivers decide up velocity on the freeway however run into bother once they attain a bridge, he mentioned.
“They hit the ice and they start wrecking,” he mentioned.
“When I-40 shuts down like that, that can be hours of waiting,” mentioned John Gadberry, who lives in Colt, Arkansas, not removed from the freeway. “I-40 is usually one of the first things that freezes over due to its slight elevation.”
By late Tuesday morning, I-40 was cleared and visitors had resumed, the Arkansas Department of Transportation introduced. The interstate connects Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee.
The storm started Monday as a part of an anticipated “several rounds” of wintry precipitation by way of Wednesday throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee, in accordance to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.
“Generally light to moderate freezing rain resulting in some pretty significant ice amounts,” Chenard mentioned.
“We’re expecting ice accumulations potentially a quarter inch or higher as far south as Austin, Texas, up to Dallas over to Little Rock, Arkansas, towards Memphis, Tennessee, and even getting close to Nashville, Tennessee,” in accordance to Chenard.
The flight disruptions observe Southwest’s meltdown in December that started with a winter storm however continued after most different airways had recovered. Southwest canceled about 16,700 flights during the last 10 days of the yr, and the U.S. Transportation Department is investigating.
The weather service has issued a winter storm warning for a big swath of Texas and components of southeastern Oklahoma and an ice storm warning throughout the midsection of Arkansas into western Tennessee.
A winter weather advisory is in place in a lot of the rest of Arkansas and Tennessee and into a lot of Kentucky, West Virginia and southern components of Indiana and Ohio.
Schools and schools in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas deliberate to shut or go to digital studying Tuesday.
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Martin reported from Woodstock, Georgia. Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; and David Koenig in Dallas contributed.
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