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 The southern plains and central region including Arkansas,
Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas were especially hard hit by the storm,
according to the National Weather Service.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, people scrambled to stock their cupboards
as temperatures plunged. Many grocery stores reported running low on
bread, milk, bottled water and snack foods by noon on Thursday.
Holly Vines, a Little Rock resident, hoped she could still find
something on the shelves.
"I'm going to get coffee, cigarettes and cat food then I'm going to
get my sable coat out of storage in case I have to sleep in it," she
said.
The governors of Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma declared a state of
emergency and directed resources for the response to the winter
storm, and the governor of Missouri activated the state's 24-hour
emergency operations center.
Missouri's highway patrol readied all of its four-wheel drive
vehicles to reach motorists as needed on snow-packed, roads,
according to the governor's office.
A motorist was killed in a vehicle rollover on a snowy state highway
in southwest Missouri on Thursday, said Sergeant Jason Pace of the
Missouri State Highway Patrol.
"We are seeing partially to totally snow-covered roads," Pace said.
"There are lots of slide-offs and multiple accidents related to
that."
The Oklahoma City Police Department reported that a homeless man was
found dead under an overpass and was believed to have died from the
cold.
Also in Oklahoma, a 5-year-old boy was killed in a crash on Thursday
in Muskogee, when his mother lost control of her van on an icy
bridge and rolled the van, according to the state Highway Patrol.
Utility provider Entergy Arkansas said it was bringing in an
additional 6,700 workers to help with downed power lines and outages
that could last a week. The company urged people to ensure they had
flashlights, fresh batteries, food, water and first-aid kits.
Many roads and highways in northwest Arkansas were covered with ice.
Schools, including the University of Arkansas, were closing early or
canceled classes entirely. The Arkansas State Police said there were
numerous reports of car accidents.
"In some locations, a glaze of ice may span several days and last
into the weekend," meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said on
AccuWeather.com.
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MORE SNOW COMING
Missouri and states eastward and north to New York are likely to see
more snow than ice as the wintry weather hits Thursday evening,
bringing up to 6 inches of snow to cities including St. Louis,
Pittsburgh and Albany, New York, meteorologists said.
The National Weather Service said 4 to 8 inches of snow was forecast
for Missouri overnight and into Friday.
"This evening, we will see travel conditions severely impacted,"
said weather service meteorologist Andy Foster in Springfield,
Missouri.
Freezing rain and sleet will make roads treacherous in Tennessee on
Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
"Basically we're going to get a bunch of cold rain on and off
(Friday), then sub-freezing temperatures are going to move in," said
weather service meteorologist Angie Lese in Nashville.
The frigid weather sweeping across the Midwest and Southern Plains
follows a storm that dumped up to 22 inches of snow in parts of
Minnesota earlier this week.
After the storm passes, temperatures in parts of the central and
western United States will be 10 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 to 17
Celsius) below normal through the weekend as a cold air mass spreads
through those regions, the National Weather Service said.
FedEx said in a statement on Thursday, its 15 meteorologists are
closely monitoring the severe winter storm moving across the
country.
"We have detailed contingency plans in place to help mitigate any
delays," FedEx spokeswoman Carla Boyd said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Carey Gillam in Chicago, Brendan O'Brien in
Milwaukee, Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas, Heide Brandes in Oklahoma
City, Tim Ghianni in Nashville and Kevin Murphy in Kansas City,
Missouri; editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Paul Simao)
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