The Gulf Coast is digging out from a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm that struck from Texas to Florida, closing airports and crippling roadways.

The giddy texts and videos came rolling in from my bundled-up sister in New Orleans on a historic day in the Big Easy. “It’s snowing, it’s snowing, it’s snowing,” she whispered, her eyes wide in disbelief,

At least a dozen people died in the weather, officials reported, with five people perishing after a multi-vehicle accident in Zavala County in western Texas on Tuesday, and at least 7 people dying from exposure to the cold in Texas, Alabama and Georgia.

The storm has killed at least 12 people, including five in Zavala County, Texas, early on Tuesday in a car accident on Highway 57, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Deadly low temperatures and snowstorms across much of the entire US reached into Southern US Gulf states on Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing areas of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida to a standstill and killing at least 10 people.

An historic January storm dumped more deep snow along the U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday after bringing Houston and New Orleans to a near standstill over the past two days and burying parts of Florida's Panhandle with accumulations more typical of Chicago.

“Just like hundreds of other meteorologists today, I am speechless,” one wrote, sharing a video clip of whiteout conditions on Pensacola Bay Bridge in Florida. The city of Milton, Florida, reported 9.8 inches – probably the state’s biggest daily snowfall on record.

People in Acadiana are urged to stay vigilant because of the ongoing threat posed by the winter blast. Meteorologist Lynette Charles with The Weather Channel

In this Weather Wednesday we compare last week's snowstorm in the south to the Valentine's Day Blizzard of 1895.

ATLANTA >> An historic January storm dumped more deep snow along the Gulf Coast today after bringing Houston and New Orleans to a near standstill over the past two days and burying parts of Florida’s Panhandle with accumulations more typical of Chicago.

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.

F lorida and other southern towns appear to have shattered snowfall records in what many are calling a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness sandy snowscapes on beaches, of all pla