DALLAS—Schools and buildings from Texas to Georgia were shut down Thursday or prepared to close ahead of freezing rain and snow forecast for much of the Southern United States as another burst of plunging temperatures and winter storms threatened to again snarl travel.
Texas schools canceled classes for more than 1 million students in anticipation of icy and potentially dangerous conditions that could last into Friday. Closures also kept students home in Kansas City and Arkansas’ capital, Little Rock, while Virginia’s capital, Richmond, remained under a weather-related boil advisory.
The cold snap coincided with rare January wildfires tearing through the Los Angeles area, forcing residents to flee from burning homes through flames, ferocious winds, and towering clouds of smoke….