A rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow that closed highways, grounded nearly all flights and canceled school for more than a million students more used to hurricane dismissals than snow days.

A winter storm sweeping across the south is now responsible for claiming several lives in a vehicle crash on an icy Texas highway. Schools are closed, snow is piling up and freezing temperatures are widespread as the storm tracks from Texas,

A rare winter storm churned across the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, breaking snowfall records more than a century old in a southern region where flurries are unusual, as much of the United States remained in a dangerous deep freeze.