Cold Snarls Traffic, Travel Across Nation

A spreading cold wave sent traffic spinning out of control Wednesday on icy highways from Texas through the Tennessee Valley, killing two people and injuring at least 28 as two chain-reaction collisions claimed a total of 59 vehicles in Austin, Texas.

“It looks like most of the South is going to be under the gun until Christmas,” said meteorologist Von Woods at the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Ga.

Two minor collisions minutes apart on opposite sides of Interstate 35 in Austin turned into chain-reaction pileups involving more than 50 vehicles.

Jay Root started to slow down when his windshield began to ice up, and his car went into a slide as soon as he touched the brake pedal.

“I looked to my left, a car was sliding. I looked to my right, a car was sliding. I somehow threaded the needle between the two cars,” he said.

Three people were killed Wednesday on icy roads in Virginia. Icy highways also contributed to traffic deaths this week in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.

In Alabama, a homeless man was found dead of exposure Tuesday, and icy roads contributed to three highway deaths in the state on Wednesday.

The need to de-ice planes before takeoff caused flight delays and hundreds of cancellations Wednesday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the hub of American Airlines.

In Tennessee, Northwest Airlines canceled 64 departures and 68 arrivals during the morning at the Memphis airport.

Only two of the four runways at the Nashville airport were open. Cars and trucks involved in accidents littered a slippery highway that had to be closed near that city.

Police in San Antonio said they had counted nearly 400 car wrecks by midday, or 10 times the normal number. At least five other traffic deaths were reported around the state besides those in Austin.

“We’re telling people they need to slow down if they have to get out and drive,” said Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange.

Subfreezing temperatures that locked onto the Plains and the Midwest led to crowded homeless shelters and numerous complaints from apartment residents about lack of heat.

The storm also was blamed for scattered power outages, as tree limbs and power lines snapped under the weight of a thickening coating of ice.

Even the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas froze. They had to be turned off during the night as the gambling capital hit a low of 26 degrees.

Alabama and Tennessee closed sections of interstate highways because of ice, and Kentucky State Police urged people in the southern part of the state to just stay home.