The boys, aged 6, 8 and 9, fell through the pond on Monday, January 26, across the street from a house where they were staying in Texas. Their mother said she fell into the freezing water while trying to rescue them.

States across the country have been blanketed in snow. More than 40 people are reported to have died in areas impacted by the severe weather.

The brothers died after falling into a private pond in a rural community of about 10,000 people near the Oklahoma border.

The boys' mother Cheyenne Hangaman told the Associated Press that she and her children had been staying at a friend's house across the street from the pond.

She said she warned them to not go near the pond.

Hangaman said her youngest daughter ran to tell her that her brothers were in the water on Monday.

"They were just screaming, telling me to help them," Hangaman said.

"And I watched all of them struggle, struggle to stay above the water. I watched all of them fight."

She said she ran across as much ice as she could to get to her sons, but ended up falling in herself. The icy water shocked her body.

Hangaman said she would grab one of her sons and try to put him on ice, but the ice would break every time.

"I would just keep trying to go to each one of them trying to help them and it was only me, like I couldn’t help them all by myself."

A man who came to help was able to throw a rope to her to get her out of the pond.

"I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move," she said.

"By that time I knew that my kids were already gone. So I just had to try to fight for my life at that point."

First responders and a neighbour pulled the two older boys from the water while the youngest boy was recovered after a search of the pond, the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office said.

On Tuesday, a layer of ice still covered much of the small pond in a wooded area.