AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Winter weather brought snow to a wide swath of the United States on Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of more than 1,600 flights nationwide, stalling traffic on an interstate through Arkansas and leaving thousands stranded. The power went off for the Texans. ,
Several auto collisions were reported in Austin, Texas, with at least one fatality according to the Austin Fire Department. In Travis County, Texas, which includes Austin, police and sheriff’s deputies have been responding to new accidents every three minutes since 8 a.m., according to the Austin-Travis County traffic report page.
More than 700 flights out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and more than 250 out of Dallas Love Field were canceled or delayed on Tuesday, according to the tracking service FlightAware. In DallasโFort Worth, a major US airport hub, more than 40% of flights were cancelled.
FlightAware reported that Dallas-based Southwest Airlines has canceled more than 500 flights and delayed more than 250.
Nearly 7,000 power outages were recorded in Texas as of Tuesday morning, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said after a briefing in Austin on the worsening conditions. He stressed that the outages were due to factors such as snow or fallen trees on power lines, not the performance of the Texas power grid that buckled for days during a deadly winter storm in 2021.
Fleets of emergency vehicles were pulled out of 1,600 roads affected by the cold.
Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said a Texas state trooper was seriously injured after being struck by a driver who lost control of his vehicle.
โThe roadways are very dangerous right now. We cannot stress this enough, Abbott said.
In Arkansas, Interstate 40 was snow-covered and “extremely dangerous” in the Forrest City area Tuesday morning, according to the city’s fire department. Post pictures on social media Shown the crumpled cab of a semi-trailer.
Department Chief Jeremy Sharp said by telephone that the department responded to two bad wrecks and about 15 other accidents Tuesday morning. He said that in many accidents, the drivers speed up on the highway but they face problems when they reach the bridge.
“They hit the ice and they start to disintegrate,” he said.
“When I-40 is closed like this, there can be hours of waiting,” said John Gadberry, who lives in Colt, Arkansas, not far from the highway. “I-40 is usually one of the first things to freeze because of its slight elevation.”
The Arkansas Department of Transportation announced that as of late Tuesday, I-40 had been cleared and traffic had resumed. The interstate connects Little Rock, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee.
storm started monday As part of an expected “multiple rounds” of wintry precipitation through Wednesday in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Chenard.
“Generally light to moderate freezing rain resulting in some significant snow accumulations,” Chenard said.
According to Chenard, “We’re expecting potentially a quarter-inch or more as far south as Austin, Texas, toward Little Rock, Arkansas, Memphis, Tennessee, and even That snow will accumulate as close as Nashville, Tennessee.”
follow flight disruptions Southwest’s Meltdown in December It started with a winter storm but continued after most other airlines had recovered. Southwest canceled nearly 16,700 flights in the last 10 days of the year, and US Department of Transportation is investigating,
The weather service has issued a winter storm warning for a large portion of Texas and parts of southeastern Oklahoma, and a snow storm warning for western Tennessee through central Arkansas.
A winter weather advisory is in place for the rest of Arkansas and Tennessee, and for Kentucky, West Virginia and southern parts of Indiana and Ohio.
Schools and colleges in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Tuesday announced plans to close or go to virtual learning.
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