Winter weather cancels flights, at least one fatality in Texas
DALLAS — Winter weather brought ice to Texas and nearby states Tuesday, causing the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights nationwide and bringing traffic to a standstill on an interstate through Arkansas.
Numerous 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 crashes about every three minutes since 8 a.m., according to the Austin-Travis County traffic report page.
More than 700 flights to or from DallasFort Worth International Airport and more than 200 to or from Dallas Love Field were canceled or delayed Tuesday, according to the tracking service FlightAware. At DallasFort Worth, a major U.S. hub airport, more than 40 per cent of the flights had been canceled.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines has canceled more than 300 flights and delayed nearly 100 more, FlightAware reported.
In Arkansas, Interstate 40 Tuesday morning was ice-coated and “extremely hazardous” in the Forrest City area, according to the city’s fire department. Pictures posted on social media showed the crumpled cab of a semi-trailer.
“When I-40 shuts down like that, that can be hours of waiting,” said John Gadberry, who lives in Colt, Arkansas.
By late Tuesday morning, I-40 was cleared and traffic had resumed, the Arkansas Department of Transportation announced. The interstate connects Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee.
The storm began Monday as part of an expected “several rounds” of wintry precipitation through Wednesday across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.
The weather service has issued a winter storm warning for a large swath of Texas and parts of southeastern Oklahoma and an ice storm warning across the midsection of Arkansas into western Tennessee.
A winter weather advisory is in place in much of the remainder of Arkansas and Tennessee and into much of Kentucky, West Virginia and southern parts of Indiana and Ohio.
Schools and colleges in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas planned to close or go to virtual learning Tuesday.