Millions across US South brace for rare ice storm

ATLANTA — Millions of people across the U.S. South were hit by a rare snow and ice storm Tuesday that brought traffic to a halt and cancelled about 900 flights at the world's busiest airport, in Atlanta.

Motorists from Texas to Virginia were warned to stay off the roads. Popular warm-weather tourist destinations, including New Orleans and some Florida beaches, expected ice and snow over the next two days.

Nationwide, nearly 3,000 flights within, into or out of the U.S. had been cancelled Tuesday, according to statistics from the flight tracking service FlightAware.

On beaches in Alabama, icicles hung from palm trees. Hundreds of students in another part of the state faced spending the night in gyms or classrooms because the roads were too icy. Four people were killed in a Mississippi mobile home fire blamed on a space heater.

The governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi declared states of emergency.

In the Midwest, several states saw schools and other facilities close for a second consecutive day as dangerous wind chills were predicted.