Roughly 40 million people from Texas to the Carolinas are under winter weather alerts as a rare winter storm amid bone-chilling temperatures brings potentially historic snowfall to cities unused to harsh,

The National Weather Service office in Lake Charles, Louisiana, said the winter storm has been producing blizzard conditions across southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana as heavy snow and wind gusts impacted the region.

A winter storm swept across south Louisiana on Tuesday morning, covering New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette in a layer of snow. Highways, roads and schools across the state have been closed — effectively stalling Louisiana's economy.