Live Update: A rare winter storm sweeps through the Gulf Coast

Houston, we have a storm: Parts of the city’s metropolitan area were under a blizzard warning and could receive four to six inches of snow Tuesday afternoon. It’s the biggest winter weather event since at least the 1960s, forecasters say. The National Weather Service advised drivers to stay off the road “at all costs.” The power grid in Texas, crippled by a major winter storm in 2021, was back on Tuesday morning.

10 inches in Cajun country: An initial hurricane warning for southern Louisiana and southeast Texas will be in effect until noon local time, the Weather Service office in Lake Charles, La. . As much as 10 inches could fall in some places, and forecasters warned that snow visibility could drop to less than a quarter of a mile. Four to six snowfalls are forecast for the city of New Orleans,

Not the usual first aid: Governors across the South, more familiar with hurricane threats than winter storms, issued emergency declarations. Campuses were closed, in some cases through Wednesday, in Houston and Austin, Texas, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., Tallahassee, Fla., and several other communities. School postponements were also announced in South Carolina and Georgia.

Canceled flights: Houston’s airport system, which includes George Bush Intercontinental Airport, William P. Hobby Airport and Ellington Airport, said it was shutting down all flights at midnight. Most airlines at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport have suspended flights through Wednesday, airport officials said, though they added that the airport will remain open as long as there are “no conditions.”

It’s cold all over the country: The storm in the Gulf is part of a powerful blast of Arctic air across the country this week. It has already brought heavy snow to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and freezing temperatures to the Rockies and Midwest. A wind chill of minus 30 Fahrenheit in the Texas Panhandle was recorded overnight, with minus 37 in parts of Iowa.