Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: Nearly 40 million citizens are under the extreme winter weather alert in the south-central part of the United States.
A mix of cold freezing rain and bitter and cold air had already hit parts of the region and was expected to last until mid-week.
According to the BBC, more than 1,900 flights have been suspended, with airports in Texas mainly affected.
Forecasts suggested “treacherous travel conditions” over the next few days.
National weather predicted
On Tuesday, the national weather service predicted that around half an inch of ice would accumulate on the roads in Texas, Austin, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Dallas, Tennessee.
Arlington, Texas, police said that they had responded to a seven-car pileup and a fatal car rollover. The fire department said a second person died in a 10-car pileup in Austin.
Austin police said on Tuesday that they had responded to over 200 collision calls.
Sheriff’s office said that a sheriff’s deputy in Travis County, Texas, was wounded in a cold weather-related crash on Tuesday when he was hit by the truck while assisting the cars that had slid off the road.
Several schools in Texas have been closed. As of Tuesday evening, more than 30,000 houses in Texas lost power.
This cold weather phenomenon has been caused by the arctic cold frontal passage making its way south, where it has confronted warm and moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.
The NWS said that the resultant wintry precipitation is expected to drape over the region. The agency expected rain and scattered flash floods to hit parts of the deep south and south-eastern US by midweek.
