Austin, Texas: Tuesday's ice storm caused by winter weather caused more than 1,700 flight cancellations nationwide and gridlocked highways. Texas' slippery roads claimed the lives of at least two people, and two law enforcement officials in the state, including a deputy who was pinned under a truck, suffered serious injuries.

On Tuesday, watches and warnings were issued from West Virginia all the way to Texas' western heel as the ice storm moved east. The federal Weather Prediction Center warned that several rounds of mixed precipitation, including sleet and freezing rain, were expected for many regions through Wednesday. As a result, some areas might experience more than one round of flooding.

Texas' Republican governor, Greg Abbott, urged citizens to avoid the roads as emergency personnel flocked to hundreds of auto accidents across the state.

Authorities reported that one person was killed in an early-morning collision Tuesday in Austin. According to the Arlington Police Department, a 45-year-old man also passed away on Monday night after his SUV rolled down an embankment near Dallas and into a guardrail.

According to the flight tracking service FlightAware, more than 900 flights to or from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and more than 250 flights to or from Dallas Love Field were cancelled or delayed on Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon, more than half of Tuesday's scheduled flights at Dallas-Fort Worth had been cancelled.

According to Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, another accident resulted in a Texas state trooper being hospitalized with serious injuries after being struck by a driver who lost control of their car. "Roadways are currently very dangerous. We cannot emphasize that enough, said Abbott.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools made the decision to cancel classes for Wednesday due to freezing rain and hazardous driving conditions as ice and sleet engulfed Memphis, Tennessee. About 100,000 students attend the school system. By six in the morning tomorrow, the University of Memphis promised to reveal its Wednesday class schedule.

Due to the ice storm, Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas on Tuesday proclaimed a state of emergency. In her statement, Sanders cited the "likelihood of numerous downed power lines" and claimed that poor road conditions have caused a backlog in commercial drivers' deliveries. According to the Forrest City area's fire department, Interstate 40, one of Arkansas' main thoroughfares, was ice-coated and "extremely hazardous" on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning, according to Division Chief Jeremy Sharp by phone, the department responded to about 15 other crashes in addition to two serious collisions. According to him, the drivers often speed up on the highway but have trouble when they get to a bridge.

John Gadberry, who lives in Colt, Arkansas, not far from the highway, said that when I-40 shuts down in that manner, there may be hours of waiting. Due to its slight elevation, Interstate 40 is frequently among the first things to freeze over.

The Arkansas Department of Transportation reported that I-40 had been cleared by late Tuesday morning and that traffic had resumed. Memphis, Tennessee, and Little Rock, Arkansas, are connected by the interstate.

According to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard, the storm started on Monday as part of an expected "several rounds" of wintry precipitation across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee through Wednesday.

According to Chenard, there has been "generally light to moderate freezing rain" with "some pretty significant ice amounts."

As far south as Austin, Texas, up to Dallas over to Little Rock, Arkansas, towards Memphis, Tennessee, and even getting close to Nashville, Tennessee, Chenard said, "We're expecting ice accumulations potentially a quarter inch or higher."

The cancellations and delays are in response to Southwest's meltdown in December, which started with a winter storm but persisted even after most other airlines had recovered. Over the final 10 days of the year, Southwest cancelled about 16,700 flights, and the U.S. Transportation Department is looking into it.

The weather service has issued ice storm warnings across the middle of Arkansas into western Tennessee as well as a winter storm warning for parts of southeastern Oklahoma and a large portion of Texas.

In most of the remaining Arkansas and Tennessee, as well as in most of Kentucky, West Virginia, and southern Indiana and Ohio, a winter weather advisory is in effect.

Tuesday was scheduled to be a closed or virtual learning day for schools and colleges in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.