The ice storm that is pummeling parts of the south is as bad as forecasters thought.

More than 1600 flights have been canceled, traffic is snarled and emergency calls for help continue to tick up as conditions remain intense. Dallas police reported a staggering 371 emergency calls.

Driving conditions across the Southern Plains up through Arkansas have been treacherous for drivers. A multiple car pileup involving several jackknifed semi-trucks was reported in Reeves County, Texas. A tractor-trailer crash in Arkansas halted traffic for hours on I-40 and at least one person died in Austin, Texas after a 10-car pileup. 

A Travis County, Texas sherrif was rushed into surgery after being pinned by a truck that lost control.

Despite the onslaught of wintry weather across Texas, Governor Greg Abbott said the state's electrical grid was holding up.

"The power grid itself is functioning very effectively as we speak right now," he said during a press conference. "And there is not anticipated to be any challenge to the power grid in the state of Texas."

There was mounting concern about the stability of the state's grid after some 246 people died in 2021 as a result of its failure during a winter storm.