Winter storm strands Canadian family in RV in Texas

Annick Ruedi and her young daughter headed south this year in the hopes of experiencing a more pleasant winter.

"The goal always was to spend Christmas in gorgeous southern Texas," said the Ottowa resident. "To finally escape the heaps of snow and freezing cold temperatures we have every year in Canada."

But mother nature had other plans. Like tens of millions of other people, they have been swept up in a historic winter storm that has brought brutally cold temperatures to much of North America.

The storm has wreaked havoc on highways, dumped multiple feet of snow on unsuspecting regions, and cancelled thousands of flights amid the chaos of holiday travel season.

Now, Ms Ruedi, 47, and Émeline, 9, are sheltering inside their rented RV trailer on Texas' Mustang Island State Park. The small spit of land, which sits on the Gulf of Mexico not far from the city of Corpus Christi, saw temperatures on Friday afternoon drop below freezing with a biting wind chill on top.

Outside their recreational vehicle, enormous waves crashed and palm trees bowed from the wind.

Ms Ruedi, a marketing specialist who works remotely, had rented the RV so her daughter could experience the wonders of the US. The two had embarked on their American adventure in October, making their way through the states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida before arriving in Texas this month.

When they first got to South Padre Island in Texas this week, they hoped to take advantage of the pleasant weather that's typical for this time of year. Instead, they encountered gale-force winds and temperatures that froze their faces the moment they stepped outside.

"In one night I used a whole tank of propane," Ms 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."

At first, she tried to find a hotel room or Airbnb, but her search was in vain. Ms Reudi then decided to drive to Mustang Island on Thursday in the hopes of finding better conditions.

"The Gulf of Mexico was rocking last night!" the National Weather Service's Corpus Christie station tweeted on Friday. Their buoys recorded waves as high as 16 feet, and winds as high as 45 miles per hour. The city of Corpus Christi planned to open multiple warming centres, and warned residents that the wind chill could send temperatures into the single digits Fahrenheit.

Mustang Island's official website shows two happy beachgoers in their swimsuits. Instead, Ms Ruedi and her daughter donned multiple layers while inside their camper and closed the curtains on their windows shut to trap heat.

"I was clever enough, I packed our winter gear from Canada just to be on the safe side," Ms Ruedi said. She added that they'd got enough supplies and had found a sense of community among other travellers at the park.

With their winter getaway not going as planned, young Émeline was disappointed - not that it was cold, but that it wasn't cold enough.

"No!" she declared, when the BBC asked if she wanted the storm to end. "We want the cold because I like the snow!"