reporter: dallas, texas is nearly shut down at 26 degrees, it was colder there today than in alaska, causing the city to counsel this weekend s downtown holiday parade and annual marathon. the freakish weather causing the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights in and out of dallas-fort worth, airports and highways across the region are littered with accidents causing pipe ups. in illinois cars slid on highways and onto the side of the road and medians. in some cases, the weather has been deadly. five deaths have been attributed to the storm and the sudden drastic change in weather in memphis caused some with no place to go, trying to find places to get out of the cold. this weather is getting to be awful. rainy, very rainy, very wet, chilly and there s no place for the homeless downtown memphis. it s unusual at this time of year.
of the country in misery and y mayham. reporter: two days ago here in arkansas, the state was reaching near record high temperatures, 75 degrees on wednesday. today, try 26 and a dangerous layer of ice coating the roads, cars spun out and power lines weighed down with the frozen rain. the biggest problem we got right now, no traffic on the road. therefore no traffic when we put the salt and sand down, sleet come down and sit on top of it and sit there, and until there s really stop, i don t think we ll see any improvement at all. reporter: dallas, texas is nearly shut down at 26 degrees, it was colder there today than in alaska, causing the city to counsel this weekend s downtown holiday parade and annual marathon. the freakish weather causing the