By Georgina McCartney and Brendan O’Brien

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A rare winter storm slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, bringing heavy snow, ice and gusty winds to a region where flurries are rare, while much of the United States remains in a dangerous deep freeze.

As the storm moved east, crews near Houston plowed highways, while downtown streets, blanketed in white, were nearly deserted during the morning rush hour.

In downtown Houston, few people braved the snow while some restaurants and bars remained closed. The Houston metro rail is running but passengers are scarce. Schools were closed Tuesday and Wednesday as the city expected about four inches (10 cm) of snow to fall.

“I’ve been in Texas my whole life and I’ve never seen snow this deep,” said Ishan Bhaidani, 29, who owns a fintech consulting firm in Houston. “Usually it would be icier but this kind of fine snow, this is a first.”

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 told X .

Snow also fell in New Orleans, where as much as eight inches were expected to accumulate by the end of the day, threatening to tie a record set in 1895. The last time the city received any measurable rain in snow in 2009, according to the National Weather Service.

“Stay home and stay off the streets,” said a bundled-up New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell as the wind whipped snow into her face in a video message to X residents.

The storm is expected to creep into Mississippi, Georgia and Florida early this week. Up to five inches of snow is forecast for Mobile, Alabama, where such accumulations have not been seen in more than 60 years, according to the NWS.

A snowstorm warning was in effect for 31 million people — from south Texas east to Georgia and north to the Carolinas and into Virginia — Tuesday through Wednesday morning, the service said.

Hundreds of flights in and out of regional airports were delayed or canceled Tuesday morning. About 960 flights departing from or arriving at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport were canceled, according to Flightaware.com.

Temperatures are expected to drop Tuesday into the single digits Fahrenheit, well below freezing, across the region. Forecasters and local leaders are urging residents to protect themselves from the cold and take steps to prevent their water pipes from bursting.

Across the South, the snow, combined with an inch of ice accumulation and wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour (64 kph), will make road and air travel difficult for several days, while threatening to fall power lines and trees, forecasters. said.

In southeast Texas, about 30,000 homes and businesses are without power, according to Poweroutage.us.

“While we experienced some isolated outages, our system as a whole remains stable,” CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: ), which provides electricity to the Houston area, said in a statement.

Ports and pilots in Texas, who help guide ships, suspended some operations Monday as cold weather hit the state.

Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama, opened warming centers and closed government offices in anticipation of the storm. Several school districts have canceled classes, according to local news.

Up north, much of the eastern two-thirds of the United States is experiencing bitterly cold temperatures while an Arctic front is expected to linger through Tuesday.

It was -5 degrees Fahrenheit (-21 degrees Celsius) in Chicago, 5 F in Cleveland and 11 F in New York City, the NWS said. Those morning readings compare favorably to -39 F (-39 C) recorded near Grand Lake, Colorado, the coldest spot in the US on Tuesday morning.