a major winter storm There was massive destruction in Texas and the northern Gulf Coast was covered with record breaking snowfall. It moved eastward on Wednesday, bringing heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain to parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and the eastern Carolinas.
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At least four weather-related deaths have been reported.
In Austin, Texas, two people have died from the cold, Austin city officials confirmed Tuesday night.
Two people also died in Dale County, Alabama, the county coroner's office told CBS News. A 27-year-old woman died in a single-vehicle crash on a snow-covered road in the town of Ozark, and a 37-year-old man died in a snow-covered road in the town of Pinchard while trying to warm his home. He died when his house caught fire while he was turning on the stove, the coroner said.
Wednesday's weather warning areas included major cities like Jacksonville, Florida, where snow, sleet and ice accumulations were expected Wednesday. Jacksonville International Airport was closed Tuesday evening due to weather and said it planned to reopen Wednesday afternoon. Schools canceled classes and government offices remained closed on Wednesday.
Other large cities still at risk as of Wednesday morning include Savannah, Georgia, Charleston and Wilmington, South Carolina, according to CBS News meteorologist Nikki Nolan.
Brian Sunshine via Reuters
In eastern North Carolina, blowing snow was expected with near blizzard conditions on the state's outer coasts, where up to 8 inches of snow could fall.
The region is expected to experience dangerous subzero temperatures and even worse wind chills for much of the week.
Heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain fell across parts of the Deep South as a blast of arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and eastern US into deep freeze.
It's been more than a decade since it last snowed in New Orleans. The National Weather Service said Tuesday's rare snowfall set a record in the city, with as much as 10 inches falling in some places, far surpassing the record of 2.7 inches set Dec. 31, 1963.
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11½ inches of rain fell in Chalmette, Louisiana, the weather service said.
“Wow, what a snowy day!” the weather agency said in a social media post. “It's safe to say this was a historic snowfall for most of the area.”
The snowfall closed highways, grounded nearly all flights and canceled school for more than a million students, who had become more accustomed to dismissals due to storms than to snowy days.
Snow fell in Houston and the first blizzard warnings were issued in several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border. Snow blanketed the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, “Believe it or not, we are mobilizing snow removal equipment across the state of Florida.”
People made the most of it – from snowball fights on a Gulf Shores beach to sledding laundry baskets in Montgomery, Alabama, to pool-tubing on a Houston hill.
In New Orleans, urban skiing was attempted on Bourbon Street, a priest and nuns engaged in a snowball fight outside a suburban church, snowboarders clipped the back of a golf cart, and people kayaked, covered in snow, on cardboard boxes. There was sledding and inflatable alligators on the banks of the Mississippi River.
High school teacher David Dalio and his two daughters were sliding down the embankment on a yoga mat and a boogie board.
“It's a white-out in New Orleans, it's a snow-a-can,” Dalio said. “We've had plenty of stormy days but never a snowing day.”
The nuns at St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic School near New Orleans last week encouraged their students to pray for the snow day they were supposed to face Tuesday, the Rev. Tim Hedrick said. The priest said he invited the nuns to make snow angels and he challenged them to a snowball fight, which has since been viewed thousands of times on social media.
“It's a fun way to show that priests and sisters are people too, and they can have fun,” Hedrick said.
Mobile, Alabama, set a record of seven and a half inches.
More than 2,300 flights to or within the US were canceled Tuesday, according to online tracker FlightAware.com. Both Houston airports suspended flight operations, and nearly every flight at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport was cancelled. Most airlines plan to resume operations from Wednesday.
About 112,000 homes and businesses, mostly in Georgia and Florida, were without power Wednesday morning. PowerOutage.usInformed.
Up to 4 inches of snow fell around Houston, the NWS said. Texas transportation officials said more than 20 snowplows were being used across about 12,000 lane miles in the Houston area, which lacks its own city or county plows.
CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV posted photos Lions, leopards, flamingos and bald eagles are frolicking in the rare snow
Ahead of the storm, governors in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and even Florida — the Sunshine State — declared states of emergency and many school systems canceled classes Tuesday. School closings were planned in some coastal communities in North and South Carolina.