A major storm blanketed heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across the southern United States on Wednesday, from Texas through the Deep South, down into Florida and to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, snow and sleet made for accumulating ice in major cities such as New Orleans, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Florida.
In Alabama, the weight of the snow collapsed the dome of the Mobile Civic Center, which was being demolished to make way for a new entertainment facility.
A forecaster from the National Weather Service in Birmingham reports a slight warming trend will bring rain showers over the next few days in Central Alabama. At least eight deaths were attributed to the storm as dangerous below-freezing temperatures with even colder wind chills settled in.
The icy conditions plagued drivers in Georgia, where troopers responded to more than 1,000 calls for help.
