A severe ice storm continues to sweep across parts of the south, causing chaos on the roads that has been blamed for at least eight deaths, with flight cancellations and widespread power outages.
A “long duration” winter storm that has brought dangerous snow and freezing rain from Texas to Tennessee is expected to continue through at least Thursday morning, the National Weather Service said.
As of Wednesday, at least eight deaths were linked to the storm.
On Monday, a 45-year-old man was ejected from the vehicle he was driving after he lost control on an ice-covered overpass in Arlington, Texas, police said. He died in the hospital.
That evening, a 49-year-old woman was killed when she struck 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 the snowy road and skidded.
In Austin, another person has died in a weather-related multi-vehicle crash, according to Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.
Seven of the deaths occurred across the state of Texas, but a truck driver in Benton County, Arkansas, was pronounced dead Monday after a truck skidded in a snowy patch and crashed into a pole.
Dangerous roads and flight cancellations
The storm has caused widespread travel chaos on roads and airports this week.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urged residents to avoid the roads due to the dangerous snowstorm as nearly 1,600 roads in the state were affected.
“Due to the snow, many roads in Texas will remain extremely dangerous for the next 24 to 48 hours,” he said. “Be careful, especially for things like black ice.”
The weather service in Fort Worth warned that light to moderately cold rain will move into central Texas counties Wednesday morning “with contact freezing and ice accumulation on all surfaces!”
“The already slippery roads will be even more slippery and very dangerous tonight and tomorrow!” He said in a tweet.
Severe weather has contributed to thousands of flight cancellations and delays so far this week.
On Wednesday, at least 2,403 flights to and from the United States were canceled, according to online flight tracker FlightAware. At least 1,338 of those cancellations were at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, while about 390 were listed at Dallas Love Field and 345 at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, both regionally based national carriers, accounted for the majority of cancellations, with Southwest canceling 675 flights Wednesday and American Airlines listing 876 cancellations, according to FlightAware.
The National Basketball Association canceled Wednesday night’s game between the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons due to travel issues.
“Due to severe weather conditions in the Dallas area, the Pistons have been unable to fly to Detroit following their game at American Airlines Center on Monday,” the NBA said.
Widespread power cuts
In Texas, more than 366,000 homes and businesses were without power early Thursday morning, according to the outage tracking website PowerOutage.us.
“Ice and tree limbs are still breaking as our linemen work on restoration,” tweeted utility Austin Energy, which had more than 163,000 customers without power Wednesday.
The utility company said power could be out in some areas through Friday, and restoration efforts were hampered by ice accumulation and freezing temperatures.
About half an inch of freezing rain was recorded in some parts of the city, the National Weather Service said, which brought down many trees and shrubs.
Utility Oncor had about 125,800 customers out. Crews said they are working as quickly as possible to restore power.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, utility officials said the state’s electric grid and natural gas supplies are ready and will remain reliable during severe weather events.
Public Utilities Commission Chairman Peter Lake asked Texans to contact their local power provider if local power outages occur due to winter weather and snow conditions.
Severe weather to continue
Abbott said people in the north, west and central parts of the state should prepare for severe weather to continue through Thursday.
He said parts of Texas could experience flooding on Wednesday and Thursday.
More snow was expected Wednesday across much of the Mid-South from Texas, the weather service said. Up to half an inch of additional snow was forecast for central and northern Texas as well as parts of southern Arkansas, it said.
“A quarter-inch of ice growth is possible over large areas of southern Oklahoma, much of Arkansas, and far western Tennessee,” it warned, adding that this amount of ice growth on top of already fallen snow could lead to more. “Treacherous travel,” with the possibility of tree damage and power outages.
Blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories are in effect for hard-hit areas and residents are urged to check road conditions before traveling and drive with extreme caution, it said.
Delivery services Grubhub and DoorDash confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday that they have suspended services in areas affected by the weather.