By Georgina McCartney and Brendan O’Brien
HOUSTON (Reuters) – A rare winter storm churned up the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, bringing heavy snow, ice and wind gusts to an area where blizzard conditions are uncommon, while much of the United States Dangerous remains in the deep freeze.
As the storm moved east, crews plowed highways near Houston, while downtown streets, blanketed in white, were nearly deserted during the morning rush hour.
In downtown Houston, some people ventured out into the snow as some restaurants and bars remained closed. The Houston Metro train was running but there were very few passengers. Schools were closed Tuesday and Wednesday as the city expected about four inches (10 cm) of snow.
“I’ve lived in Texas my whole life and I’ve never seen snow this deep,” said Ishan Bhidani, 29, owner of a fintech consulting company in Houston. “It usually gets snowier but this kind of good snow, this is the first time.”
Authorities in Houston are investigating two possible weather-related deaths, including a homeless man who was found dead near an apartment complex, the Harris County Sheriff said on X.
Snow was also falling in New Orleans, where up to eight inches of snow was expected by the end of the day, threatening to tie the record set in 1895. According to the National, the last time the city saw any measurable snowfall was in 2009. weather service
“Stay home and stay off the roads,” said a bundled-up New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell as winds whipped a sheet of snow into her face in a video message to residents on the X.
The storm is expected to move into Mississippi, Georgia and Florida early this week. Up to five inches of snow was forecast for Mobile, Alabama, which has not seen such accumulations in more than 60 years, according to the NWS.
A blizzard warning was in effect for 31 million people — from South Texas east to Georgia and north to the Carolinas and Virginia — Tuesday through Wednesday morning, the service said.
Hundreds of flights in and out of area airports were delayed or canceled Tuesday morning. According to Flightaware.com, some 960 flights to or from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport were canceled.
Temperatures across the region were expected to drop into the single digits Fahrenheit on Tuesday, well below freezing. Forecasters and local leaders urged residents to take steps to protect themselves from the cold and prevent water pipes from bursting.
Across the south, snow, with up to an inch of snow accumulation and wind gusts of up to 40 mph (64 km/h), could make road and air travel difficult for days, while power lines and Trees are at risk of falling, the forecaster said.
In Southeast Texas, about 30,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to Poweroutage.us.
“While we experienced some isolated outages, our system overall remained stable,” CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: ), which provides electricity to the Houston area, said in a statement.
Texas ports and pilots, who help guide ships, suspended some operations Monday due to cold weather in the state.
Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama, opened warming centers and closed government offices in anticipation of the storm. Many school districts have canceled classes, according to local news reports.
To the north, much of the eastern two-thirds of the United States was experiencing brutally cold temperatures as an arctic front was expected to stall until at least Tuesday.
It was -5 degrees Fahrenheit (-21 degrees Celsius) in Chicago, 5 degrees Fahrenheit in Cleveland and 11 degrees Fahrenheit in New York City, the NWS said. The morning readings were unremarkable compared to the -39 F (-39 C) recorded near Grand Lake, Colorado, the coldest place in the US on Tuesday morning.
