TEXAS reeled from rare December tornados yesterday, as days of storms battering a vast region stretching from the southwestern U.S. to Canada claimed at least 43 lives.

    Hundreds of flights across the area have been canceled, and with portions of major highways flooded or snowed under, the storm system is wreaking holiday travel havoc for millions of Americans.

    The National Weather Service is warning of blizzards, freezing rain and flash floods in the next days, all part of a powerful storm system fueled by unseasonably warm air that began in the deep south last Wednesday.

    The NWS said that 21 states were under a weather watch or warning.

    The governors of New Mexico, Texas and Missouri declared states of emergency for all or parts of their states to handle storm damage Sunday. Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia earlier took similar measures.

    The storm dumped rare heavy snow in eastern New Mexico, a situation Governor Susana Martinez described as “dire.”

    Authorities closed down I-40, a major highway linking the city of Albuquerque with neighboring Oklahoma. (SD-Agencies)