A powerful winter-like storm
that is being blamed for at least eight deaths is marching eastward and could
wreak havoc as millions of Americans are preparing to travel for Thanksgiving.
The front, which began Thursday in California,
is now pummeling most of North Texas with a mix of rain, light freezing rain
and light sleet. The west got walloped with up to three feet of snow from
California to Texas. Meteorologists said they expected the Arctic mass to head
south and east and threaten plans for Tuesday and Wednesday as people hit the
roads and airports for some of the busiest travel days of the year.
More than 43 million Americans will travel more
than 50 miles this holiday week, according to AAA and some of them got off to a
rocky start as more than 300 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth
International Airport Sunday.
Deadly Winter Storm Across Southwest
"DFW is the fourth-busiest airport in the
country and as such it's a major part of the interconnected aviation system of
the United States and really of the world," airport spokesman David Magana
told ABC News Radio.
A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect from
Dallas to Shreveport, La., until noon today with icy conditions. The system is
expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico later today where it will pick up
moisture and drop 1 to 3 inches of rain from Houston to Atlanta.
By Tuesday, the front will move along the East
Coast and could bring 2 to 5 inches of rain from the Carolinas to Maine with a
threat of flash flooding in some areas. Further inland, cities including
Knoxville, Cleveland, Buffalo and Syracuse will see mostly snow with some areas
getting close to a foot of snow.
In addition to the rain and snow, wind gusts of
30 to 50 mph from Tuesday evening through Wednesday night are expected.
Thanksgiving Travel Season Could See
Nasty Winter Storm
The system will clear the East Coast by
Thanksgiving Day, leaving just chilly temperatures in New York City for the
annual parade.
The storm has already claimed the lives of at
least eight people with the latest death reported in New Mexico Sunday where
more than a foot of snow fell, The Associated Press reported. A 4-year-old girl
in New Mexico was killed in a rollover accident.
Three storm-related deaths were reported
Saturday in a crash in the Texas Panhandle involving nearly a dozen vehicles,
The Associated Press reported.
In California, where the storm system hit first,
three deaths have been linked to the storms since Thursday, as authorities
found one body near downed power lines, one man crashed his vehicle into a tree
and a woman was killed when a tree fell on a parked car.
In Arizona, firefighters recovered the body of a
man who was swept away by high waters Friday in the Santa Cruz River in the
southern part of the state.
Flagstaff, Ariz., was socked with 11 inches of
snow by early Sunday and was expecting at least another inch overnight. Metro
Phoenix and other parts of central Arizona received between 1½ to 2½ inches of
rain over the course of the storm.
The storm is also affecting animals and casing
migrating ducks to fall from the sky in Noble, Okla. Rondi Large, director at
Wildcare Foundation in Noble, is caring for a group of confused ducks who
thought they were landing in water when they crashed into glistening, ice
covered asphalt roads.
"The edges of their beaks had got very bad
bruising and bleeding on the end of the beaks so they must have
nose-dived," Large said".
By Anthony Castellano
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