DALLAS — (CNN) Get ready for even more brutal weather across much of the U.S.

The epic storm system that has claimed dozens of lives is barreling east, ready to drop ice and heavy snowfall in the Midwest and Northeast as well as massive rainfall in the Southeast.

All this comes as Missouri grapples with deadly flooding and North Texas tries to clean up from both tornadoes and snow.

There have been about 43 weather-related deaths in the past week across the country, with the current severe storm system blamed for 25.

The 25 deaths include 11 in the Dallas area, eight in Missouri, five in southern Illinois and at least one in Georgia. Many died after their cars were swept away by floodwater.

The good news: the mammoth storm is on its way out.

Here’s what to expect across the country:

Dallas-area residents trying to recover from a spate of deadly tornadoes will endure freezing temperatures Tuesday.

Many have been displaced from their homes after several tornadoes, including a twister in Garland that killed eight people. Other tornadoes touched down in nearby Collin and Rockwall counties.

“I feel so bad for my kids because everything they were so excited for (at Christmas) is gone now,” Garland resident Terri Sykora said.

David Ruiz survived the tornado in Garland, but his house did not. Amid all the rubble, his family’s two cats are still missing.

“You don’t know how to recover yet,” he said. “Thankfully, a lot of family has sent a lot of money so that we can recover. And we’re able to eat and stay somewhere warm with a friend.”

The storm will continue dumping heavy snowfall and ice across the Northern and Central Plains, Great Lakes and the Northeast, the National Weather Service siad.

Parts of northwest Massachusetts are expected to be covered with a half-inch of ice Tuesday, the National Weather Service’s Boston office said.

“Sleet/freezing rain expected to be a greater concern than snow,” the NWS office said.

After days of record warmth in the Southeast, temperatures will finally drop, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said.

Parts of the South will get drenched with heavy rain and flooding, the National Weather Service said.

Georgia has already had at least one weather-related fatality. Authorities found a victim submerged in a vehicle in Gordon County, which has been hit hard by flooding.

After the Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri reached dangerously high levels, the gates on the 148-foot Bagnell Dam were opened to release 100,000 cubic feet of water per second, CNN affiliate KY3 reported.

Over the weekend, eight people died in flash flooding, including four international soldiers temporarily stationed at Fort Leonard Wood for training.

A witness reported the soldiers’ car driving onto a flooded road and immediately getting swept downstream, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office said. The names and nationalities of the four soldiers have not been released.

Pulaski County Sheriff Ron Long said flash flooding can be particularly dangerous at night.

“Streams turn into rivers, and people sometimes don’t see the road has flooded over when they are driving at night,” he said.

At least 69 tornadoes have touched down in the United States in just the past week, CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said.

“Typically, you see about 24 for the entire month of December,” he said.

But flooding actually causes many more deaths in the country than tornadoes do. And there have already been about 400 reports of river flooding in the country.

In some places, the rainfall hasn’t stopped for weeks. Portland and Seattle have been drenched with rain every day in December, Javaheri said.

And the U.S. isn’t alone. The UK and South America are dealing with their own massive flooding.

Blame it on El Niño — a warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, mainly along the Equator.

El Niños occur every two to seven years in varying intensity, and the waters of the eastern Pacific can be up to 4 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than usual.

El Niños can cause more frequent and intense storms — as well as massive economic damage, like the major El Niño in 1997.

“Globally speaking … this is something that typically has somewhere around $30-$45 billion of damage that at least occurred the last go-around in 1997 into 1998.”

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