ATLANTA  — The Big Chill turned into the Big Dig on Saturday for many Southerners — the Americans who least expect to open their doors to see up to a foot of snow.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Tree limbs snapped with a sound like gunshots, blacking out thousands of homes and businesses, and schools and government offices were closed Tuesday as a major storm spread a glaze of ice and snow from the southern Plains to the East Coast.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Lights came back on for some lucky people Wednesday as utility crews struggled to repair power lines snapped by the ice storm that had blacked out as much as a million homes and businesses across the nation's midsection.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - As Sgt. Michael Franks pulled up to a shack resting among the ice-coated limbs of a forest in northeast Arkansas, he said he couldn't believe that anyone was living on the property located miles from any major road - let alone a 92-year-old woman waiting for something to eat.

CONCORD, N.H. - An ice storm to compare with some of the Northeast's worst made a mess of the region Friday, leaving 1.25 million homes and businesses in seven states without power as it forced schools to close and toppled ice-laden trees and power lines onto slippery roads.

OKLAHOMA CITY - The ice storms that have been blamed for at least 21 deaths continued to lash much of the nation Sunday, as crews tried to restore power to hundreds of thousands and slick roads spawned accidents.

We like to think that most illegal immigrants in the East Valley are harmless folks just trying to make a living, and indeed most are.

DES MOINES, Iowa - A thick glaze of ice brought down power lines and cut electricity to close to a million homes and businesses, closed schools and canceled flights Tuesday as a major storm blasted the nation's midsection.

A top immigration official who shot himself while driving north of Tucson last year was seen trying to shred a large amount of documents before his death, records show.

A barrage of monsoon microbursts devastated Queen Creek and northern Pinal County on Friday night, snapping 200 power poles like twigs, uprooting hundreds of trees, tearing roofs off homes and impaling livestock with airborne debris.

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Rescuers rummaged through a chaotic landscape of pulverized homes and twisted metal Saturday, racing to tally Hurricane Charley’s ‘‘significant loss of life’’ and help thousands left homeless by its vicious winds and rain. Thirteen people were confirmed dead.

CHICAGO -- Hundreds of holiday travelers spent the night in the nation's second busiest airport and others faced delayed or canceled flights and highways choked by snow and ice as storms kept up their assault on northern states.