A sheet of ice on a hill near Preston, Oklahoma completely shut down traffic on U.S. Highway 75 Tuesday for several hours.

As of 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, the road had reopened, but troopers warn that it could change again at any moment if there’s a bad wreck or if the precipitation worsens, so they are urging people to avoid the area.

It’s the opening salvo in what will be a short-lived, but extremely difficult weather event.

The ice will soon be under a layer of snow, something Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lieutenant Mark Southall calls a “worst case scenario.”

“The roadway is a solid sheet of ice, and there’s no place for anybody to go,” Southall told KRMG. “The sand truck that we had coming out there got stuck.”

The inability to top that hill left hundreds of vehicles stuck in the southbound lanes, Southall said.

Phil Prosser called the KRMG newsroom to say his wife was stuck in that massive traffic jam.

“She can’t turn around. I’m trying to keep her from panicking,” Prosser told our reporter. “She’s been there for two hours, she hasn’t moved hardly a foot.”

He said he had tried local police, and the state highway department, but couldn’t get any solid information.

KRMG was able to reach Lt. Southall, who explained the situation with the ice and added that troopers, along with help from some National Guard personnel, were going to try and get enough sand down on the road to get the vehicles in the southbound lanes turned around, and take them out via the northbound lanes.