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DALLAS (AP) — A winter storm that dumped several inches of snow on Texas Friday closed schools, snarled travel and forced a main highway into Oklahoma to shut down after nearly 20 vehicles slid off the road.
The system that closed schools Friday in Lubbock, Abilene, Midland, Odessa and San Angelo reached the Dallas-Fort Worth area by midmorning.
Up to 7 inches of snow was reported Friday from the South Plains and Panhandle of West Texas to northeastern Texas. Reports of 3- to 4-inch accumulations were widespread in counties between Dallas-Fort Worth and the Red River, prompting forecasters to issue a winter storm warning for Cooke, Grayson, Wise and Denton counties late Friday afternoon through Saturday. Freezing drizzle prompted a winter-weather advisory for the rest of North Central Texas through 6 p.m. Saturday and through noon Saturday for Central Texas.
Streets and highways in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were jammed early Friday afternoon as North Texans left work and school early to try to beat the worst of the snow and freezing drizzle. Dallas police reported at least 415 traffic accidents Friday, while Fort Worth police said there had been 617 traffic-related calls by 6 p.m.
U.S. 75 near Melissa, about 25 miles north of Dallas, was closed in both directions for a time Friday but reopened by early afternoon, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
About 15 cars and trucks, plus four tractor-trailers, slipped off the road, resulting in minor injuries to at least seven travelers, the Collin County Sheriff's Office said.
"We had one or two vehicles involved in a crash, then we had several vehicles trying to avoid that accident, those went off the road," DPS Sgt. Lonny Haschel said. "The majority of them are not going to be car crashes, vehicles that just simply slid off the road and need a wrecker."
Roads were expected to remain treacherous well into Saturday, National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Harris said.
"The roads are going to be bad through the night hours," he said.
More than 400 arrivals and departures were canceled Friday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, according to flight tracker Flightaware.com. About a dozen flights were canceled at Love Field in Dallas.
And baseball fans who hoped to score tickets in-person at the Rangers' Globe Life Park on the first day of individual-game sales were out of luck. The ticket office closed late Friday morning due to deteriorating weather conditions, a team statement said.
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Associated Press writer Terry Wallace contributed to this report.
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