At least 20 dead as record-breaking winter storm sweeps across South, Midwest

At least 20 people have died as a record-breaking winter storm slams the South and Midwest this week, plunging them into subzero temperatures and knocking out power in millions of homes. 

The deaths included four people — a grandmother and three children — that died in a Sugar Land, Texas, house fire, which a fire official said was likely spread from their fireplace while they tried to keep warm, according to The Associated Press.

Ten people died in Kentucky and Texas due to dangerous conditions on roads, including the Fort Worth crash that included 100 vehicles and led to six deaths last week, The New York Times reported.

Two people were killed when their vehicle slipped off the road and into a waterway in Kentucky, the AP reported citing state police. In Houston, a person who got into a crash was struck and died after exiting the vehicle, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.  

Another 59-year-old man in Missouri died after a snowplow hit his truck on Monday, and a man died after losing control of his vehicle on an icy road in Mississippi also on Monday, according to local reports. 

Other deaths included a man who died after slipping on ice and hitting his head in Louisiana and a 10-year-old who fell in a pond in Tennessee, according to a local report.

The death of a 78-year-old in San Antonio was also attributed to the weather conditions, according to CBS affiliate KENS6.  

Houston police had previously reported the deaths of a woman and child due to carbon monoxide poisoning after the woman started the vehicle in her garage to stay warm as temperatures fell well below freezing. Officials also reported two men were found dead along Houston-area roads. 

Power outages were worst in Texas, where more than 3 million people remained without power as of Wednesday morning, according to poweroutage.us. State officials have asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide 60 generators while giving priority to hospitals and nursing homes, the AP reported. 

Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth reported that at least 13 children were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning as families are going to “extreme measures” to keep warm, according to a press release.

Three people also died in a Tuesday tornado in North Carolina, but it was unclear if the tornado was “meteorologically related to the winter storm,” according to the Times.