A record-setting snowstorm along the Gulf Coast has Louisiana officials worried people unaccustomed to the cold might overreact in ways that could get them killed. Hence, a strange warning was issued during the storm: Don’t invite alligators, bears and other wildlife into your home.

Roughly 40 million people from Texas to the Carolinas are under winter weather alerts as a rare winter storm amid bone-chilling temperatures brings potentially historic snowfall to cities unused to harsh,