FlightAware and airlines reported that over 3,000 flights were canceled and thousands more delayed Friday due to a severe storm in the south of the United States. Delta Airlines reported a “worse mix of winter conditions” that caused the Atlanta International Airport to close all five runways for over two hours.

Delta said that it had “canceled approximately 1,100 flights on our network” on Friday. The carrier was “working to recover Delta heading into Saturday”.

A Delta flight was forced to abort the take-off due to an engine problem in Atlanta. US media reported that more than 200 passengers and crew on the Boeing 757 300 had to exit using emergency slides.

FlightAware reports that the bad weather also affected Dallas Fort Worth (Texas), Charlotte Douglas (North Carolina), and more than 1,200 flights were cancelled between the two airports. The tracking site recorded more than 3,500 cancellations across multiple airports on Friday.

The United States had already been hit by a snowstorm at the start this week. It caused at least five deaths and hundreds of cancellations as it swept the center and east. In some places, temperatures plummeted to below zero degrees Fahrenheit.