 An
abandoned car in Placitas, New Mexico, Tuesday
(CNN) -- Across
the United States, many regions braced for hazardous weather on
Wednesday. Travel warnings were issued for some southern states,
where trees were toppled and downed power lines left hundreds
of thousands without electricity. In Arkansas, state employees
were told to stay home because of dangerously slick roads.
Arkansas National
Guardsmen were sent out to rescue motorists stranded during the
second big ice storm to hit the state in two weeks. Abandoned
cars hampered efforts to clear roads.
"The
southwest corner is just bloodied," said Jennifer Gordon,
a spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Department. "Roads
are like skating rinks. It's just catastrophic."
In the Texas
Panhandle, many roads were closed late Tuesday after more than
a foot of snow accumulated. American Airlines canceled more than
700 flights at Dallas-Fort Worth because of weather problems elsewhere.
Winter storm
warnings were issued on Tuesday for parts of Missouri and Tennessee,
while special weather statements were issued for Alabama, Georgia,
North and South Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia, describing such
local forecasts as sleet or much colder temperatures.
A winter storm
is possible on Friday in Virginia, a weather service forecast
said Tuesday, with "the potential for heavy snow."
"Right
now, even though this is preliminary, it will perhaps impact the
mid-Atlantic region, and eventually it could be for New England
and the Canadian Maritimes," said CNN weather anchor Karen
Maginnis. "We won't know the exact track until we get all
the weather elements together."
'You could
hear trees popping'
Four traffic
deaths were blamed on the storm in New Mexico, while Oklahoma
recorded three deaths. Authorities said a traffic accident on
a rain-slicked road in east Texas killed five people.
In Arkansas,
up to 2 inches of ice covered roads in parts of the state. The
Little Rock National Airport was closed, with runways covered
in ice. The National Weather Service implored people to avoid
driving if possible, and to have winter weather survival kits
in their cars if they had to venture out.
An ice storm
warning remained in effect for parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Freezing temperatures created a blanket of ice on highways and
secondary roads, making driving extremely dangerous.
"This
system is very slow-moving, so the ice accumulation is remarkably
heavy," Maginnis said. "When we look at ice storms,
we may talk about quarter-of-an-inch or half-inch accumulation.
But to talk about 1, 2 and 3 inches of accumulations is catastrophic,"
she said.
Several communities
opened shelters across southern Arkansas after more than 200,000
homes and businesses lost electricity because of ice-heavy limbs
falling on power lines.
"Going
to sleep last night you could hear trees popping all over the
woods," said Billy Ray McKelvey, managing editor of the De
Queen Daily Citizen newspaper, which was unable to publish a Tuesday
issue.
In Fort Smith,
the 117-year-old Times-Record newspaper, with a circulation of
42,000, also shut down Tuesday and did not publish a paper for
Wednesday "for the first time ever," editor Jack Moseley
said.
Texas authorities
closed some highways. "We can't salt the roads fast enough,"
said Garza County, Texas, deputy constable Cliff Laws.
 Motorists
slowly pass fallen tree limbs brought down by ice in Clovis, New
Mexico, Tuesday
More power outages
In Oklahoma, ice on trees and power lines knocked out power to
tens of thousands of people on Tuesday. Emergency crews in the
state had restored electricity to several thousand people by midmorning,
but about 122,500 customers were still in the dark later in the
day.
Ice on power
lines in McAlester, Oklahoma, was almost an inch thick. City manager
Randy Green said power was out to the city's water system and
the town got dangerously low on water.
Entergy Arkansas
reported about 49,000 customers without power across the state.
More than 60,000 customers had no power in northeastern Texas,
and 34,000 were without power in Louisiana.
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