An Arctic blast has gripped much of the United States, leaving nearly 700,000 people without power, at least 16 dead from weather-related car crashes and thousands stranded due to flight cancellations.
Key points:
- Thousands of flights have been cancelled by the winter storms
- Driving was banned in Buffalo, where three bridges on the Canadian border were closed
- Power companies are asking customers to conserve energy as the grid struggles with demand
As plummeting temperatures were expected to bring the coldest Christmas Eve on record, energy systems across the country were strained by rising demand for heat- and storm-related damage to transmission lines.
Some 1.8 million US homes and businesses were left without power as of early Saturday morning (local time), according to tracking site Poweroutage.us.
Many electric companies were asking customers to conserve energy by not running large appliances and turning off unneeded lights.
The disruptions also up-ended daily routines and holiday plans for millions of Americans during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
More than 2,700 US flights were cancelled on Saturday, with delays to more than 6,400, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.
More than 5,000 flights were cancelled on Friday, the flight tracker said.
The American Automobile Association had estimated that 112.7 million people planned to venture 80 kilometres or more from home between Friday and January 2.
But stormy weather heading into the weekend likely ended up keeping many of them at home.
Buses save motorists from freezing in cars
Fatal car accidents around the country left at least 18 dead from weather-related accidents, according to media reports.
Two motorists were killed, and numerous others injured, in a 50-vehicle pile-up that shut down the Ohio Turnpike in both directions during a blizzard near Toledo, forcing an evacuation of stranded motorists by bus to keep them from freezing in their cars, officials said.
Three of the deaths were reported in Kentucky, where Governor Andy Beshear warned residents to: "Stay home, stay safe, stay alive."
"I know it's really hard because it's Christmas Eve. But we're having dozens and dozens of accidents," he said in an online briefing.
"It's simply not safe."
Blizzard conditions remained on Saturday for Buffalo, New York and its surrounding county on the edge of Lake Erie in western New York where between 122 centimetres of snow will fall by Sunday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
The city imposed a driving ban on Friday, which remained in effect on Saturday, and all three Buffalo-area border crossing bridges were closed to inbound traffic from Canada due to the weather.
Temperatures are forecast to top out on Saturday at just -13 degrees Celsius in Pittsburgh, surpassing its previous all-time coldest Christmas Eve high of -10C, set in 1983, the NWS said.