Sleet, snow and icy roads turn fatal in southern U.S., as winter storms persist

Ice and snow have brought traffic to a standstill in the middle of the US, canceled thousands of flights and left hundreds of thousands of people without power, and have been blamed for six deaths in Texas.

Forecasters are warning of more dangerous road conditions, as the winter storm enters its third day on Wednesday. Watches and warnings stretched from Texas to Tennessee and Mississippi.

Several rounds of mixed rain, including freezing rain and sleet, were deposited over many areas throughout the day, meaning some areas could be hit multiple times, forecasters said.

“It actually looks like it’s going to get worse again across Texas. It’s been a pretty big area of ​​freezing rain across west and southwest Texas,” said National Weather Service lead forecaster Bob Oravec in Camp Springs, Md.

Oravec said winter weather will move northeast, across parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas into western Tennessee and northern Mississippi, before tapering off.

“In the day on Thursday, it should be over and everything … the rain will come down to the south in the south and where it will be heavy rain,” said Oravec.

Flight cancellation, power outage

As of Wednesday morning, a total of 1,897 flights in, in or out of the United States were canceled, while 750 flights were delayed as of 8:41 a.m. ET, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

“This week’s winter storm has had an impact on our operations,” American Airlines Group said in a statement, adding that it was proactively canceling flights and notifying passengers.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned in a tweet that snow conditions in Dallas, Fort Worth and Memphis, could delay flights.

“An ongoing winter storm will continue to bring dangerous impacts to north and central Texas through at least early Thursday morning,” the US National Weather Service said in a Dallas-Fort Worth area forecast discussion.

More than 241,000 power outages were reported in Texas, including nearly 114,000 in the state capital of Austin, according to the PowerOutage website, which tracks utility reports.

The president and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Pablo Vegas, promised that the state’s electricity grid and natural gas supply will be reliable, and there will be no repeat blackouts in February 2021, when the grid is on the verge of total failure.

Emergency responders rushed to the scene of hundreds of crashes in Texas on Tuesday and Governor Greg Abbott urged people not to drive.

At least six people have died on slippery Texas roads since Monday.

In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency Tuesday due to icy conditions. The statement cited “the possibility of many downed power lines” and said road conditions were causing dispatches by commercial drivers.