More than 60 dead after winter storm; community mourns 3 brothers

Investigations continue as authorities work amid freezing weather to piece together why deaths occurred.

Dozens of names have been added to a mounting death toll from the Jan. 23-26 winter storm and the blast of polar air behind it, even as many Americans brace for another possible storm.

At least 62 deaths had been reported across the nation through the evening of Jan. 27. Authorities are still investigating these cases and others.

In Fannin County in northeast Texas, a community was heartbroken when three brothers – ages 6, 8 and 9 – died after falling through the ice on a pond, Sheriff Cody Shook confirmed to USA TODAY. The family was playing outside when the youngest boy fell through the ice and his brothers tried to save him as their mother rushed toward them, CBS News reported.

Teenagers died in motor vehicle and sledding accidents.

At least eight people died during or after shoveling or removing snow, authorities reported. The American Heart Association has warned the exertion of snow shoveling, especially in extreme cold, can lead to heart attacks.

An Indiana man whose name was not released had been out shoveling his driveway three or four times on Jan. 25, said Adams County Coroner Francis Dutrow. "The last time, he went back into his house and collapsed and went into cardiac arrest."

"That storm was awful," Dutrow said Jan. 27. "It's like 15 degrees here and no sign of letting up."

At least two women died in house fires, a problem that tends to spike during winter, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

In South Carolina, a 96-year-old woman with dementia collapsed outside her home just after midnight on the morning of Jan. 26 and died, according to the state's Department of Public Health. She was one of more than two dozen people whose deaths were believed to be related to hypothermia and exposure.

Winter storm death toll by state

New York, where 10 people died outside, led the nation at the end of Jan. 27 with 11 deaths.

• 9 – Indiana
• 8 – Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas
• 4 – Mississippi and Pennsylvania
• 2 – Arkansas and Massachusetts
• 1 – Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and South Carolina

How did people die?

Investigations continue as authorities work in temperatures up to 30 degrees below normal, and subzero wind chills in some cases, to piece together why deaths occurred. They're trying to pinpoint, for example, whether icy roads and snow were the cause of at least nine fatalities in car accidents throughout the storm.

Law enforcement officials also were investigating why Juanita Cannon, 54, was found dead outside her car in Evansville, Indiana, and why Rubilio Mendez Reynoso, 31, of Buncombe County, North Carolina, was found dead lying along a road with no evidence of foul play.

In Henrico County, Virginia, police said they were working to determine what happened when a toddler had to be rescued from an icy pond on Jan. 26. The child later died.

An adult male at the scene at the pond was treated for possible hypothermia, according to a statement from Henrico Police.

Hospitals reported treating many who suffered medical emergencies while shoveling snow. The UMASS Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts – where snow totals were as high as 22 inches – reported that over about 24 hours on Jan. 25 and 26, it treated seven patients with major heart attacks who had been shoveling snow.

3 brothers fall through ice, rocking community

The three brothers, whose identities were not released by authorities who cited the family's privacy, fell through pond ice on private property just outside Bonham, Texas, a small city near the Oklahoma border.

First responders pulled the two oldest boys, 8 and 9, from the water with the help of a neighbor, but the third, age 6, was not found until the pond was searched, according to the Fannin County Sheriff's Office. First aid was given to the older boys, and they were taken away in an ambulance. All three were pronounced dead.