A fearsome winter storm continued to pummel parts of the US with blizzard conditions on Saturday evening after powerful Arctic winds left over a million customers without power earlier in the day and caused Christmas travel nightmares.
At least 17 weather-related deaths, according to AFP, have been confirmed across eight states as heavy snow, howling winds and dangerously frigid temperatures kept much of the nation, including the normally temperate south, in a frozen grip for a third straight day.
But Reuters, Sky News and CNN reported 16, 28 and 22 deaths respectively.
In hard-hit New York state, Governor Kathy Hochul deployed the National Guard to Erie County and its main city Buffalo, where authorities said emergency services were not functioning.
Late on Saturday, the National Weather Service warned that blizzard conditions in the Great Lakes region caused by lake-effect snow would continue into Christmas Day, and that there would be "only slow moderation of temperatures into Monday (today)."
The "bomb cyclone" winter storm, one of the fiercest in decades, had already forced the cancellation of over 3,300 US flights on Saturday and the delay of nearly 7,500 more, a day after nearly 6,000 were scrapped, according to tracking website Flightaware.com.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted Saturday that "the most extreme disruptions are behind us as airline and airport operations gradually recover" -- words that travelers stranded at airports including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit and New York were holding on to.
Road ice and white-out conditions also led to the closure of some of the nation's busiest transport routes, including the cross-country Interstate 70, parts of which were temporarily shut down in Colorado and Kansas.
The National Weather Service warned about lethal conditions and urged residents in affected areas to remain indoors. On Friday, it said wind chills had sent temperatures plunging to -55F.
At one point during the day, nearly 1.7 million customers were without electricity in the biting cold, according to tracker poweroutage.us.
Though power had largely been restored by late Saturday, people were urged to conserve electricity and rolling blackouts were instituted in some parts of the country, including in North Carolina.
Weather officials forecast that dangerously cold conditions would continue throughout the central and eastern United States over the weekend before temperatures returned to more normal weather next week.
Canadian authorities have also issued severe weather warnings. Hundreds of thousands were left without power in Ontario and Quebec provinces, while many flights were canceled in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
VIA Rail, Canada's passenger service, said that all trains from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal would be suspended on Christmas Day due to a train derailment, while "extreme weather conditions" forced many other cancellations.
In the US, transportation departments in several plains states reported near-zero visibility whiteouts, ice-covered roads and blizzard conditions, and strongly urged residents to stay home.
Drivers were being warned not to take to the roads -- even as the nation reached what is usually its busiest time of year for travel.
Meteorologist Kelsey McEwen in Toronto tweeted that waves of up to 26 feet were reported in Lake Erie, while in Ohio's Fairport Harbor, winds gusted to 74 miles per hour, according to the NWS.
The NWS also warned against traveling in the current weather conditions.