A major winter storm that slammed Texas and blanketed the northern Gulf Coast with record-breaking snow moved east Wednesday, spreading heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and eastern Carolinas.
Brynn Anderson / AP
At least four weather-related deaths have been reported.
In Austin, Texas, two people died from the cold, Austin city officials confirmed Tuesday night.
In Dale County, Alabama, two people also died, the county coroner’s office told CBS News. A 27-year-old woman was killed when her vehicle was involved in a crash on a snow-covered road in the city of Ozark, and in the town of Pinckard, a 37-year-old man who tried to warm his home by turning on the stove died when his house caught fire, the coroner said.
Wednesday’s weather warning areas included big cities such as Jacksonville, Florida, which was expected to see snow, sleet and accumulating ice into Wednesday. The Jacksonville International Airport closed because of the weather Tuesday evening and said it planned to reopen at midday Wednesday. Schools canceled classes, and government offices were closed Wednesday.
Other big cities under the threat for the rest of Wednesday morning include Savannah, Georgia, Charleston and Wilmington, South Carolina, according to CBS New meteorologist Nikki Nolan.
Brian Sunshine via Reuters
In eastern North Carolina, drifting snow was expected with near-blizzard conditions in the state’s Outer Banks, where up to 8 inches could fall.
Dangerous below-freezing temperatures with even colder wind chills were also expected to last over much of the week in the region.
The heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hitting parts of the Deep South came as a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.
It had been more than a decade since snow last fell on New Orleans. Tuesday’s rare snowfall set a record in the city, which got 10 inches in some places, far surpassing its record of 2.7 inches from Dec. 31, 1963, the National Weather Service said.
Adrees Latif / REUTERS
Chalmette, Louisiana got 11-and-a-half inches, the weather service said.
“Wow, what a snow day!,” the weather agency said in a social media post. “It’s safe to say this was a historic snowfall for much of the area.”
Snow closed highways, grounded nearly all flights and canceled school for more than a million students more accustomed to hurricane dismissals than snow days.
Snow fell in Houston and prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border. Snow covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida.
“Believe it or not, in the state of Florida we’re mobilizing snowplows,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
People made the most of it – from a snowball fight on a Gulf Shores beach to sledding in a laundry basket in Montgomery, Alabama, to pool-tubing down a Houston hill.
In New Orleans, urban skiing was attempted along Bourbon Street, a priest and nuns engaged in a snowball fight outside a suburban church, snowboarders shredded behind a golf cart, and people went sledding down the snow-covered Mississippi River levees on kayaks, cardboard boxes and inflatable alligators.
High school teacher David Delio and his two daughters glided down the levee on a yoga mat and a boogie board.
“This is a white-out in New Orleans, this is a snow-a-cane,” Delio said. “We’ve had tons of hurricane days but never a snow day.”
The nuns at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School near New Orleans encouraged their students last week to pray for the snow day they received Tuesday, the Rev. Tim Hedrick said. The priest said he invited the nuns to make snow angels, and they challenged him to a snowball fight that has since received tens of thousands of views on social media.
“It’s a fun way to show that priests and sisters are humans, too, and they can have fun,” Hedrick said.
Mobile, Alabama, hit a record 7-and-a-half inches.
More than 2,300 flights to, from or within the U.S. were canceled Tuesday, according to online tracker FlightAware.com. Both Houston airports suspended flight operations, and nearly every flight was canceled at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport. Most airlines planned to resume operations Wednesday.
Some 112,000 homes and businesses, mostly in Georgia and Florida had no power Wednesday morning, PowerOutage.us. reported.
The NWS said up to 4 inches of snow fell in the Houston vicinity. Texas transportation officials said more than 20 snowplows were in use across nearly 12,000 lane miles in the Houston area, which lacks its own city or county plows.
CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV posted pictures of lions, leopards, flamingos and bald eagles 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 closures were planned in some coastal communities in North and South Carolina.
