At least seven people have been killed in Texas and another person was killed in Arkansas as a crippling ice storm wreaked havoc on the Lone Star State and mid-South, plunging more than 300,000 utility customers into darkness.
The storm that has been sliding across the region is the result of a bitter blast of arctic air that was in place across the central U.S. and is expected to continue to have a lingering impacts across the region through Thursday.
Driving proved nearly impossible for millions of people to begin the workweek in the Lone Star State. Rain fell through the warm air aloft to the freezing surface below, which then created a sheet of ice on roads across the region from Texas to Tennessee.
“Bridges and overpasses are considered treacherous,” White Settlement, Texas, police Chief Christopher Cook said in a tweet Monday. “People must slow down when approaching elevated surfaces.”
The Arlington Police Department in Texas said a 45-year-old man was killed after being thrown from his vehicle when he lost control while driving over the Green Oaks Boulevard overpass at unsafe speeds.
Police said he crashed into a guardrail, the vehicle went airborne and then rolled down an embankment. Police said they don’t believe he was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
Austin-Travis County EMS said another person was killed in a crash involving at least 10 vehicles in Austin.
And according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, a woman was driving northbound on U.S. 277 late Tuesday night when she lost control of her vehicle due to the icy conditions and crashed into a tree about 8 miles north of Eldorado.
Slick roads were also blamed for a single vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 380 Tuesday morning. DPS said the driver of a Dodge Ram pickup truck lost control overturning the vehicle. Three people were reported killed and one was transported to a local hospital with injuries.