At least three people perished when a violent storm system that sparked tornadoes swept over the US, including a woman and her eight-year-old son.
It brought blizzard-like weather to the Great Plains to the north and was predicted to bring more snow and ice to Appalachia and New England.
In some areas of South Dakota, the wintry blast dumped more than two feet (60 cm) of snow.
It generated a number of tornadoes to the south.
Eight people were rushed to the hospital outside of New Orleans after a probable tornado hit the Mississippi River town of Killona, shattering homes and tossing debris, and one woman was later discovered dead.
Greg Champagne, a sheriff, stated: “Debris was all over the place. This tornado was horrifying and extremely violent.”
Emergency personnel also discovered the bodies of a mother and an eight-year-old boy who had gone missing after another tornado destroyed their mobile home some 280 miles (450 km) distant in northern Louisiana.
A continual stream of tornado warnings was issued on Wednesday across significant parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
A hospital’s campus was devastated by one tornado that made landfall in southwest Louisiana, and a neighbouring tornado in Mississippi demolished four sizable chicken coops, one of which had 5,000 roosters inside.
Mobile homes at a nearby park were reduced to piles of shredded debris.
In Texas as well, dozens of houses and businesses were damaged.
The Florida panhandle was also expected to experience further severe storms.
It was anticipated that the massive storm’s icy weather will eventually hit the US from coast to coast, with ice and snow forecast in the east in the coming days.
“This system is unique for the fact that it’s going to touch areas all the way from California to eventually the northeast,” said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
