Death Toll Climbs as Deep Freeze Rolls Across Much of U.S.

Biting cold across the central United States on Tuesday pushed Illinois to its lowest temperature in recorded history--36 below zero--and took frigid conditions as far south as the Gulf Coast.

In upstate New York, as much as 16 inches of new snow piled on top of the already heavy accumulation.

The death toll from the icy weather across the eastern half of the U.S. climbed to 91, much of it caused by traffic accidents.

Illinois’ cold mark was set at Congerville, in the central part of the state. In Chicago--at 12 below zero along Lake Michigan and minus 27 in the western suburbs--water from broken pipes cascaded out of a few buildings, then turned to ice. Fog froze into airborne crystals.

In some parts of the Midwest, temperatures dropped so low that chemicals used to melt snow from roads did not work.

In Tennessee, which had single-digit lows, deaths of homeless men were blamed on exposure in Nashville and Memphis. And in Mobile, Ala., the temperature dropped to 18 degrees, breaking a 75-year-old record.