A powerful winter storm has hit the U.S. South, prompting state of emergency declarations and school closures.

Winter storms closed schools, snarled flights and put millions of residents on alert across parts of the Deep South and south-central United States.

One of the companies aiming to extract lithium from south Arkansas' salty brine aquifers announced Thursday morning that it had finalized a $225 million grant from the federal government that would help fund the first phase of one of its two proposed lithium projects.

Another blast of winter storms is closing schools, snarling flights and putting millions of residents on alert