At least 30 people have died in the United States as a powerful winter storm brought bitter cold, snow and freezing rain, the Associated Press reports.
The storm covered an area stretching approximately 2,100 kilometers from Arkansas to New England. In some areas, between 30 and 50 centimeters of snow fell. Temperatures, including wind chills, fell to minus 31 degrees Celsius. Forecasters warned of an influx of Arctic air and the possibility of another storm on the East Coast.
The victims included people crushed by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, teenagers killed in sledding accidents in Arkansas and Texas, and a woman found buried in Kansas. Eight bodies were found in New York over the weekend.
Downed power lines left more than 560,000 customers without power, mostly in the South. Air travel has been disrupted - the Associated Press, citing data from FlightAware, reports over 12,000 flights delayed or canceled.
On January 24, authorities in more than a dozen states declared a state of emergency.