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A deadly ice storm in Texas causes travel chaos, leaving thousands of residents without power

2023-02-01T13:59:40.568Z


The bad weather has caused at least three deaths, more than a thousand canceled flights and chaos on the roads. The National Weather Service forecasts the ice storm to last through Thursday.


By Chantal Da Silva -

NBC News

A severe ice storm continues to batter parts of the South, causing chaos on the roads leading to at least three deaths, as well as flight cancellations and power outages.

The “long-lasting” winter storm that has brought dangerous sleet and freezing rain from Texas to Tennessee is expected to continue through at least early Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

As of early Wednesday morning, at least three deaths had been related to the storm.

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On Monday, a 45-year-old man was thrown from the 1997 Toyota 4Runner he was driving after it apparently lost control on an icy overpass in Arlington, Texas, police said.

He died in a hospital.

That same night, a 49-year-old woman was killed after the 1997 Chevrolet Silverado she was driving crashed into a tree near Eldorado, Texas, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The woman, identified as Sherry Lynn Taylor, lost control of the truck on icy roads and skidded, the department said.

In Austin, another person died after a weather-related multi-vehicle collision, according to Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.

Dangerous roads and canceled flights

The storm this week has caused widespread chaos on the roads and airports.

At a news conference Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged residents to avoid roads due to dangerous icing, adding that about 1,600 roads in the state had been affected.

A Waco police officer works at the site of a four-vehicle crash Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, on a highway in Waco, Texas. Jerry Larson / Waco Tribune-Herald via AP

“Due to the icing, many roads in Texas will continue to be very dangerous for the next 24 to 48 hours,” he said.

"Be careful, especially with things like black ice," she added.

Bad weather has also contributed to thousands of flight cancellations and delays so far this week.

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As of early Wednesday, at least 1,300 flights into and out of the United States had been canceled, according to online flight-tracking service FlightAware.

At least 355 of those cancellations were at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, while nearly 160 were at Dallas Love Field and just under 110 at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, national airlines based in the region, were the ones that registered the most cancellations.

Southwest had canceled 487 flights as of early Wednesday and American 434, according to FlightAware.

Tens of thousands of people without electricity

Texans have also faced power outages amid the storm.

More than 128,000 utility customers were without power as of early Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

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At Tuesday's press conference, utilities officials said the state's power grid and natural gas supply were ready and would remain reliable during the course of the weather.

Public Utilities Commission Chairman Peter Lake asked residents to contact their local electric providers if winter weather and icy conditions caused local power outages.

bad weather will continue

Abbott said residents in the north, west and central parts of the state should prepare for bad weather through Thursday.

He said parts of Texas could even experience flash flooding on Wednesday and Thursday.

It's Wednesday more ice is expected from Texas to most of the southern half, according to the National Weather Service.

Additional ice accumulations of up to a half inch were forecast for much of central and north-central Texas, as well as parts of southern Arkansas.

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"A quarter of an inch of ice accumulation is possible across a larger area that includes southern Oklahoma, most of Arkansas, and into western Tennessee," he added, noting that this amount of ice accumulation in the lower part Higher than what has already fallen could lead to more "treacherous travel" along with the possibility of tree damage and power outages.

Ice storm watches, winter storm watches and winter weather warnings are in effect for the hardest-hit areas and residents have been urged to check road conditions before traveling and drive with extreme caution. 

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2023-02-01

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