Snowy, icy conditions lead to trouble across Texas,
Hundreds of thousands of students in Texas had a day off from classes Tuesday after frigid temperatures and icy roads made travel hazardous and sent scores of homeless people to shelters.
As did many Central Texas school districts, the Houston school district canceled classes due to wintry weather. It is the state’s largest with about 215,000 students.
Public schools in Galveston, San Antonio, Waco and Tyler also shut down Tuesday, along with Texas A&M University in College Station and the University of Texas at Tyler.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the Austin, San Antonio and Houston areas, plus sections of East Texas, until Tuesday night. Forecasters say the cold weather should ease late Wednesday with temperatures in the 40s in Houston and Central Texas.
Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena said at least four structural fires were caused by people “using more innovative ways to keep warm and heat their homes.”
He and other officials advised people to use space heaters properly.
At least two warming centers were opened for Houston’s homeless or others needing to escape the freezing temperatures. The Austin Resource Center for the Homeless helped arrange shelter for more than 140 people.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston canceled more than 500 flights Tuesday.
In East Texas, the icy weather also caused havoc. There, an inch of snow fell, melted and then re-froze, turning roads dangerously slick, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
Even as the National Weather Service forecast temperatures to fall to 13 degrees Tuesday night in Tyler, officials worked to restore electricity to more than 12,000 customers without power in four East Texas counties, the Morning Telegraph reported. Most of the outages were in Wood County, with others in Hopkins, Rains and Smith.
The San Antonio ExpressNews reported that between midnight and noon Tuesday, authorities responded to at least 180 traffic accidents across San Antonio, two of which involved San Antonio police officers.
Forty were reported as major crashes. One police officer was involved in a major accident; the second officer was in a minor crash.