Deadly ice storm snarls travel across southern US

Extremely dangerous road conditions were blamed for at least 10 deaths across the southern Plains as a multiday winter storm brought rounds of sleet and freezing rain from Oklahoma to Texas and Arkansas. Thousands of flights were canceled, and hundreds of thousands were left without power across several Southern states.

The first round of winter weather made travel difficult across parts of Texas on Monday, but road conditions seriously deteriorated on Tuesday and Wednesday following more rounds of freezing rain and sleet. Emergency responders in Texas were busy this week, responding to the hundreds of accidents that occurred on the icy roadways. At least seven people have died on the slick roads in the Lone Star State since Monday, The Washington Post reported.

One of the deadly accidents was a triple fatality crash on Tuesday near Brownfield, which sits about 40 miles southwest of Lubbock. The vehicle had lost traction while traveling eastbound on U.S. Highway 380 and started to skid. It crossed over the median into the westbound lane and rolled into a ditch, according to Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. A fourth passenger in the car was injured in the crash.

Authorities said another person was killed in Austin in a pileup on Tuesday before sunrise, and a 45-year-old man died Monday night after his SUV slid into a highway guardrail near Dallas and rolled into an embankment, according to the AP. In Eldorado, 40 miles south of San Angelo, a 49-year-old woman died Tuesday night after her truck struck a tree on icy roads. The death toll also includes a student that died in a rollover crash in Wolfforth, outside of Lubbock.

Accidents like this one along Interstate 30 in Rockwall, Texas, on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, were bringing traffic to a halt across parts of Texas. (Brandon Clement)

In the neighboring state of Arkansas, authorities cited the winter weather as a factor in a fatal crash in Benton County. A spokesperson for the Benton County Sheriff's Office stated a flatbed truck that was hauling equipment lost control and flipped on a road east of Avoca, Arkansas, killing the driver.

Early Thursday morning, the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 were closed in Custer County due to multiple crashes in the area. At least six vehicles collided on the icy roadways, killing a semi-truck driver and seriously injuring another, KOCO reported. Another fatality was reported later in the morning on Thursday on State Highway 33 in Payne County, Oklahoma, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Foster told KOCO. Authorities didn't release any information on the driver on Route 33, but did confirm the crash was weather-related.

Two Texas law enforcement officers were seriously injured while responding to storm-related crashes. A Travis County sheriff's deputy who stopped to help the driver of a tractor-trailer that slid off an icy highway Tuesday was hit by a second truck that pinned him beneath one of its tires. The deputy is expected to survive, authorities said.

Ice Storm Radar Loop Jan. 29 - Feb. 2, 2023

A Texas State Police trooper was seriously injured on Monday when he was struck while responding to one of the numerous crashes reported in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, authorities said.

Steven C. McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said a driver who was traveling "too fast for conditions" lost control of their vehicle and hit the trooper on Interstate 45 south at Exit 220 near Corsicana in Navarro County, about 50 miles south of Dallas. Due to deteriorating road conditions, McCraw said it took the ambulance about an hour and a half to get to the hospital. McCraw confirmed the injury during a press conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and state emergency officials Tuesday.

Abbott said in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that there were 4,000 professionals across 14 agencies responding to the winter storm unfolding across the state. He added the ice was creating dangerous conditions on the roads.

"The roadways are very hazardous right now. We cannot overemphasize that," Abbott said at a press conference.

Officials with Fort Worth's Metropolitan Area EMS Authority, known as MedStar EMS, told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell that they responded to 116 motor-vehicle accidents on Monday alone. At least 12 of the 116 accidents resulted in a vehicle rollover, and 30 patients were transported to nearby hospitals.

MedStar EMS also responded to nine calls of people slipping on ice. At least seven people were transported to nearby hospitals, and one remains in serious condition. Temperatures across the region dropped significantly Monday, which resulted in six separate hypothermia-related calls for MedStar EMS. At least three patients were taken to nearby hospitals, and all remained in serious condition.

Not many drivers were on the roadways on Wednesday morning in Fort Worth, Texas. A video shared by AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell showed roads blanketed with a sheet of ice in the city. Wadell noted that intersections in downtown Fort Worth looked like ice skating rinks.

"It's slippery, I'm telling you, it's dangerous," Kenyatta Robinson, a Denton, Texas, resident, told Wadell on Wednesday. "I got in my vehicle to go to work, and my truck just slipped back down. You have no control. It's like a block of ice."

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DoorDash suspended all Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth operations on Wednesday, citing the icy driving conditions.

"This significant winter storm has created extremely hazardous travel conditions," DoorDash spokesperson Julian Crowley told Fox 4 News. "To help keep our community safe, DoorDash is proactively activating its Severe Weather Protocol and suspending operations in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas."

Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer shuffled across a parking lot in downtown Dallas on Wednesday, the asphalt coated in a thick layer of ice.

"[It is] incredibly dangerous not only to drive, but even to walk out here, and that's why you've got to be incredibly careful when you're walking around today. It is as slippery as it gets," Timmer said in a video update.

Texas wasn't the only state where road conditions deteriorated. Two accidents on Interstate 40 in Arkansas led to a major standstill on the highway Tuesday morning. An Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) camera showed both sides of the highway congested with tractor-trailers and other vehicles. ARDOT said parts of the interstate were covered in ice, which led to the two accidents.

The accidents were cleared shortly after 10 a.m. CST on Tuesday, and traffic flow resumed to normal on the interstate, according to ARDOT.

Terry Lawrence, of Memphis, Tenn., spreads ice melting salt around Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church where a funeral service for Tyre Nichols will be held after a delay due to weather on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. Nichols was beaten by Memphis police officers, and later died from his injuries. (A.P. Photo/Jeff Roberson)

The funeral for Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, was delayed due to the icy weather affecting travel across the city, according to the AP. The service was delayed until 1 p.m. CST as the city remained under an ice storm warning expected to end on Thursday morning.

Travel disruptions weren't limited to just the ground either. Air travel across the United States was severely impacted during the winter storm. On Monday, 1,130 flights across the U.S. were canceled and another 5,744 were delayed, according to FlightAware. Nearly 2,000 flights were canceled on Tuesday, and 5,519 flights were delayed.

The trend continued on Wednesday, as more than 2,400 flights were canceled and nearly 5,000 were delayed across the country before midday.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field accounted for the majority of the country's canceled flights this week. Major flight cancellations also occurred at the Austin-Bergstorm International Airport and Nashville International Airport.

The winter weather resulted in a disruption to FedEx's operations this week. On Tuesday, the company announced that the weather was creating "hazardous operating conditions" and that "substantial disruptions" were reported at its Memphis, Dallas/Fort Worth and Indianapolis hubs. FedEx released another update on Wednesday as the winter weather continued to interrupt service.

"Potential delays are possible for package deliveries across the U.S. with a delivery commitment of Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023," FedEx wrote. "Contingency plans are in place, and we are prepared to provide the best possible service as conditions allow."

At Old Tunnel State Park, Texas, located north of San Antonio, 0.63 of an inch of freezing rain fell on Tuesday. Llano, Texas, located north of Old Tunnel State Park, picked up 0.50 of an inch of freezing rain on Tuesday. In Arkansas, several locations also picked up at least half of an inch of freezing rain on Tuesday.

It was a mixed bag of precipitation, including freezing rain and sleet, some of which came down heavily enough that thunder accompanied it.

As the ice-encased tree limbs and power lines, power outages started to climb on Tuesday afternoon across the Southern states.

As power outages climbed in Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, with power service restoration a top priority for the state. By Thursday, the state had more than 60,000 outages.

Mississippi and Tennessee both had significant power outages on Thursday. About 21,000 customers were in the dark in Mississippi on Thursday morning and another 19,000 were without power in Tennessee, according to PowerOutage.US.

In Texas, power outages continued to climb. By 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, more than 417,000 customers were without power. AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures were between the low 20s and the freezing mark in Texas on Thursday. The number dropped to over 287,000 by Thursday night, a little over half of which were in Travis County, according to PowerOutage.US.

Several videos were posted to Twitter on Wednesday morning showing flashes illuminating the sky across Austin, Texas, as transformers exploded across the city. Quickly after the transformer lit up the sky with hues of blue, purple and red, streetlights and houselights went dark. In Travis County, home of Austin, more than 132,000 customers in the Austin area alone were without power by Thursday night.

Doorbell camera captures the moment half a tree fell to the ground due to the ice in Pflugerville, Texas, a suburb of Austin. (Twitter/JENinATX)

Austin Energy confirmed that the outages in Travis County were due to the "severe winter weather" and not related to a statewide grid issue.

"Ice is accumulating on power lines, utility poles and tree limbs, leading to power outages," Austin Energy wrote on Twitter. "Crews are facing icy roads & frozen equipment, making it difficult to provide estimated restoration times. It's possible some customers may be without power for 12-24 hours."

In a 7 p.m. update, the company said that while weather conditions had improved, it was unable to provide a specific estimate for when power would be fully restored across its system.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Abbott reassured the public that the statewide power grid has "plenty of reserves and plenty of power." It was two years ago this month that the Lone Star State endured a historic cold outbreak amid a series of winter storms that wreaked havoc with the state's power grid.

"The power grid itself is functioning effectively as we speak," Abbott said on Tuesday. "There's not anticipated to be any challenges to the power grid in the state of Texas."

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