Winter storm Elliott left a Canadian mother and daughter dealing with sub-freezing temperatures and strong winds in a south Texas RV park instead of a sunny beach outing, the BBC reported Friday.
"The goal always was to spend Christmas in gorgeous southern Texas," Ottawa resident Annick Ruedi, 47, told the BBC. "To finally escape the heaps of snow and freezing cold temperatures we have every year in Canada."
Annick and her 9-year-old daughter, Émeline, left Canada in a rented RV in October to visit America during the fall and winter, escaping the seasonal conditions in their home country while visiting Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida before traveling to southern Texas' pleasant climate.
The trip, however, took a frigid turn as winter storm Elliott bore down through the continental United States, bringing frigid temperatures from Montana to the Deep South, including Florida and southern Texas.
"In one night, I used a whole tank of propane," Ruedi told the BBC. "It's so cold you really go through the propane very easily. In a camper it's not very well insulated."
She said she tried to find a hotel room or Airbnb ahead of the storm, but without any available, she and her daughter drove the RV to Mustang Island, which is on the Gulf of Mexico, not far from Corpus Christi, according to the report.
Weather.com reported Friday night that the storm descended across a huge swath of the United States, killing at least 11 people, causing thousands of flight cancellations, and leaving millions from Texas to Maine without power.
Those in its wake had to deal with strong winds, heavy snow, and a fast, large drop in temperatures, according to the Weather.com report.
The BBC report said the storm caused waves as high as 16 feet and winds up to 45 mph as measured by the National Weather Service there, with wind chills bringing temperatures down to single digits.
Instead of basking on the sun-filled beach, Annick and her daughter wrapped up in multiple layers of clothing and closed the curtains on the vehicle to keep heat inside.
"I was clever enough, I packed our winter gear from Canada just to be on the safe side," Ruedi said in the report.
She told the news outlet that they had obtained enough supplies to weather the storm and "found a sense of community" with others in the RV park.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.