Historic snow falls in Florida, New Orleans with freezing conditions expected for days across South

CNN
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A major winter storm slammed the US Gulf Coast Tuesday, blanketing parts of a region largely unaccustomed to extreme winter weather with record-breaking snowfall.

The storm impacted 1,500 miles of the Deep South from the Texas Gulf Coast to the Atlantic coast of the Carolinas, causing widespread closures and travel disruptions, including stranded motorists and thousands of canceled flights.

The storm, along with the brutal cold that helped cause it, is blamed for at least 10 deaths.

The snowfall that dazzled Southerners unaccustomed to significant accumulation is over, but the cold is sticking around and keeping slippery conditions in place. Many cities are begging residents to avoid driving as the sun melts snow that then refreezes, increasing the danger on roadways.

“This is a serious situation,” Metro-Atlanta DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said in a Wednesday morning news release declaring a state of emergency due to the conditions. “Staying off the roads is critical—not only for your safety but to allow emergency responders to reach those in need.”

Multiple locations in Florida recorded enough snow to preliminarily shatter the state’s all-time snowfall record of 4 inches set in 1954.

More than a foot of snow fell in Louisiana, the high mark from the storm.

New Orleans shattered its modern all-time daily snowfall record on Tuesday, receiving 8 inches of snow, far surpassing the previous record of 2.7 inches. The city has recorded more snowfall this month than Anchorage, Alaska, which has seen nearly two inches in January. The Big Easy typically sees measurable snow only about once per decade.

Other Southern cities also broke long-standing snowfall records:

Nationwide, at least 10 deaths have been reported due to the severe cold affecting large parts of the country and the winter storm. On Tuesday, at least five people died in a vehicle accident caused by icy conditions in Zavala County, Texas, Sheriff Eusevio Salinas told CNN. Four of the victims were ejected from their vehicle as it wrecked on a bridge.

A 27-year-old woman died in Ozark, Alabama, after her car slid on a snow-covered highway Tuesday and hit a pickup truck head-on after crossing the center line, according to the Dale County Coroner’s Office and Ozark Police Department.

Authorities are also investigating two deaths in Austin as potentially cold-related, though the medical examiner’s office has not confirmed the causes. In Georgia, officials reported one hypothermia-related death, noting the individual had been outside the previous night.

While the wintry storm has had a visceral impact on the Gulf region, below-freezing temperatures are also affecting much of the US. An 80-year-old man in Milwaukee is suspected to have died from hypothermia after falling outdoors early Sunday, according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Below-freezing weather helped law enforcement in Oklahoma catch a fugitive. A man accused of slamming a vehicle into a Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s deputy’s cruiser during a pursuit and then leading authorities on a foot chase was caught less than three hours later, according to the sheriff’s office.

The chase ended after the suspect entered a stranger’s home and asked them to call the sheriff because he had decided it was too cold to stay on the run, the sheriff’s office told CNN affiliate KOCO.

As temperatures plunged below freezing this week, the plight of those experiencing homelessness became increasingly dire.

In San Antonio, Mariah Pena and Daniel Vertiz felt the weight of this reality when Pena found a woman seeking refuge in their dog kennel on the porch Sunday, CNN affiliate KSAT reported. Startled yet desperate, the woman explained that she had nowhere else to turn.

Though the couple hesitated to invite a stranger into their home, they felt an imperative to help, thinking that even a makeshift shelter would offer respite from the life-threatening cold. “Who knows what could have happened if she were left out on the streets?” Vertiz told the outlet.

There were about 1,300 people using warming shelters in Houston Wednesday morning, Mary Benton with the Houston mayor’s office told CNN. The two largest centers were filled, but Houston Mayor John Whitmire said no one was turned away. “There’s no such thing in weather like this as reaching capacity,” Whitmire said Wednesday.

Airports in Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida closed Tuesday due to unprecedented snowfall. Issues from the closures rippled into Wednesday.

More than 1,700 flights have been canceled nationwide as of midday Wednesday, primarily affecting routes to and from Texas and Louisiana along with Atlanta, the nation’s busiest airport, according to FlightAware.

In Mississippi, Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport closed its terminal and runway until conditions improve. Jacksonville International Airport reopened at noon on Wednesday, while Tallahassee International, Mobile Regional and Mobile International Airports will remain closed until midday Thursday, due to “ongoing weather conditions,” Wednesday updates said. Lafayette Regional Airport in Louisiana also remained shut down due to icy conditions.

All departing flights at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport were canceled Wednesday, but flights resumed at both of Houston’s major airports, George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby.

With cold weather conditions across the region this week, roads could remain hazardous as snow melts and refreezes.

In Louisiana, Interstate 10 from the Louisiana/Texas state line to Baton Rouge – a roughly 150-mile stretch – was closed in both directions due to “deteriorating road conditions” Wednesday, according to the state Department of Transportation and Development. Nearly 30 state roadways were closed as of Tuesday, including the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway – the nation’s longest bridge over water.

To help treat roads, New Orleans has hired 14 snow plows from an Indiana-based company, city director of homeland security and emergency preparedness Collin Arnold told reporters Tuesday. The initial focus will be on clearing critical routes, while crews will tackle main thoroughfares, he said.

Meanwhile, roads in Alabama’s Escambia, Mobile and Baldwin counties were deemed “impassable” and closed due to the storm’s impact, officials said.

Nineteen counties in Mississippi were still reporting ice on roads and bridges Wednesday morning, with black ice remaining a significant threat, the Mississippi Department of Transportation said on social media. “Until the sun warms us up enough to thaw things down today, please only drive if it’s an emergency!”

The Georgia State Patrol responded to more than 100 vehicle crashes in a 14-hour period, the Department of Public Safety said. Metro-Atlanta’s DeKalb County declared a state of emergency Wednesday morning after “hundreds” of 911 calls and over 100 vehicles became stranded on icy roadways, with many obstructing emergency response efforts.

“This is a highly unusual winter weather event impacting nearly three-quarters of the state and our crews cannot be everywhere at once,” Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell McMurry said. “Georgia DOT will need time, ability to access the roads to treat or plow, and warmer temperatures working in our favor to help restore and maintain passable conditions.”

CNN Meteorologists Mary Gilbert and Brandon Miller and CNN’s Alexandra Skores, Lauren Mascarenhas, Jamiel Lynch, Karina Tsui and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.