February 12, 2014, 8:55 a.m.

Much of the South on Wednesday again awoke again to the nastiness of a winter storm, needle-like freezing rain, growing piles of snow and biting temperatures that turned roads into a deadly, slippery mess and cut off power to tens of thousands of people.

The storm, which spread from Texas to the Carolinas, was described in near-apocalyptic terms by the National Weather Service, which in a morning memorandum labeled the weather "an event of historical proportions." The service went on to use phrases such as "catastrophic … crippling … paralyzing" in describing the potential dangers.

At least six deaths have been reported in Texas and Mississippi. The storm will head north throughout the day, bringing from between six inches to more than a foot of snow as it moves through Washington, D.C., squeezing the New York metropolitan area and into New England.

'; jQuery(document).ready(function(){ jQuery('#story-body-text').append(muskalsig); });