At least 72 dead, 27 in Tennessee alone, as early winter storms continue to pummel U.S.

At least 75 people have died in the winter storms that have continued to pound much of the U.S. for a week and a half, officials said.

About 57 million people woke up to winter weather alerts Monday, with systems producing freezing rain in the Midwest and the South for residents of eastern Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.

The freezing rain will continue across parts of the Midwest and the southern Great Lakes on Tuesday, with storms producing periods of rain or snow before moving into Canada.

Another round of freezing rain is expected to break out across the central Plains and the Great Lakes regions Wednesday.

The dangerous winter weather has led to at least 75 deaths directly attributed to rain, ice and snow since Jan. 12, local officials have said.

At least 30 of those deaths have happened in Tennessee, more than in any other state. Many of those deaths have been preliminarily attributed to hypothermia and car accidents, officials have said.

Public schools in Nashville and Memphis remained closed Monday as officials continued to urge Tennesseans to stay off dangerous, ice-slicked roads.

The cold snap also wreaked havoc on the Memphis water system, plagued by burst pipes on account of the cold.

While Memphis Light, Gas and Water lifted its water conservation order at 11 a.m. Monday, its boil advisory remains.

It will take until Wednesday for water pressure to be sufficient for testing that would take 18 to 24 more hours to complete, said the utility’s president and CEO, Doug McGowen.

“Assuming good results, we think that means Thursday for lifting of the boil water advisory,” McGowen told reporters Sunday.

Even if it’s not snowing or raining, hazardous conditions remain all over Tennessee.

For example, a pickup truck almost went off a 200-foot cliff in Maury County on Sunday. A sheriff’s detective who saw the driver losing control stopped to help and called fire rescuers, officials said.

Responders secured the pickup truck and got the man out of his precariously dangling vehicle, authorities said.