Southern half of U.S. facing dangerous winter storms

New winter storms threatened tens of millions of people across the southern half of the United States Monday morning.

Rain, snow, sleet and freezing rain stretched for thousands of miles.

Warnings were posted from California to South Carolina.

Tennessee was under a state of emergency after another deadly ice storm hit Friday.

In the past week, there have been 22 weather-related deaths there, nine blamed on hypothermia.

At one point over the weekend, more than 50,000 people in the state were without power, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

Crews were working to turn on the lights and heat for thousands of Tennesseans after trees coated in thick ice buckled, taking power lines down with them.

"It's one of the worst I've ever seen; it really is," resident Richard Godsey said.

He and his wife are relying on their fireplace to keep warm. At the time of CBS News' interview with the couple, they had been without power for nearly two days.

"It's done more damage; people's homes, cars," Godsey said.

For hundreds, sticking it out at home is not an option.

"I don't think you can really imagine it's this bad until you get here," Red Cross volunteer Patty Daugherty said.

She traveled nearly 200 miles to lend a hand at one of seven shelters in the state and said a number of the people at the Monterey Baptist Church had been rescued from their houses.

"They don't have heat; they had no way to even get down here," Daugherty said. "We've got a hospice patient; we have numerous patients on oxygen."

The extreme, dangerous weather that tore through Tennessee was too much for the roof of a Portland building. It gave way over the weekend, unable to withstand the snow and ice.

Putnam County executive Randy Porter said the outages are posing a new threat.

"Counties that don't have electricity to their water pumping stations don't have water now also," Porter said.

Power officials predict it could take weeks to fully restore the electricity.

"You come here to help other people and you're the one that's blessed," Daugherty said.

She said she's happy to help those who have been displaced in the meantime.

"These people just want to go home. I don't think a lot of them have much, but they value what they have," she said.

Putnam County schools are closed Monday and it's unclear when they will reopen. While temperatures are supposed to peak at 28 degrees, officials are more concerned with the fog that's been hindering efforts to repair the downed cables.

Farther west, snow and ice were making driving dangerous. Slippery roads caused several tractor-trailer accidents in Woodward, Oklahoma, and Arkansas was dealing with its own bout of winter weather as snow fell in Fort Smith on Sunday. Texas had freezing rain and sleet Sunday night, and now parts of the state are under a winter storm warning, reports CBS News correspondent Vicente Arenas.

Northern Texas has mostly avoided the bone chilling cold punishing the South, but a thin layer of ice on some roadways is causing problems for drivers.

Schools in Dallas will be closed Monday as temperatures dipped below freezing and will stay there until Tuesday afternoon.

A nasty mix of sleet and bitter cold is starting to ice over bridges and roads and has already led to multiple car accidents.

More than 1,000 flights have already been cancelled to and from Dallas Fort Worth airport and that number is expected to climb.

Forecasters predict this will be the worst week of weather Dallas has seen all winter.