Washington [US], January 26: A severe winter storm in the United States has already left hundreds of thousands of people without power before it was due to hit New York, Philadelphia and Washington later on Sunday.
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas are among the states worst affected, with some 730,000 households hit by outages nationwide, according to website PowerOutage.us.
Nearly 190 million people - more than half of the US population - are facing disruption in one of the country's worst winter storms in several years, according to the authorities.
The storm was expected to spread over a distance of around 3,000 kilometres from New Mexico in the south-west to Maine in the north-east over the weekend, the National Weather Service said.
It was expected to hit New York on Sunday, while numerous states have declared a state of emergency.
Adverse conditions have also caused chaos for travellers with thousands of flights cancelled.
Local authorities say heavy snowfall is leading to traffic disruptions and road closures, potentially lasting several days. Ice deposits have created "extremely dangerous" travel conditions in some areas, they said.
With the ongoing cold spell threatening to paralyse parts of the country in the coming days, authorities have called on people to stay put as much as possible and leave their cars at home.
Washington residents were urged to have torches ready and to charge their mobile phones. According to NBC News, centres were to be opened in all five boroughs of New York where residents could warm up.
CNN reported 58 centimetres of snowfall in Crested Butte, Colorado, while up to 20 centimetres were recorded in parts of Oklahoma, some 30 centimetres in New Mexico and 15 centimetres in Texas.
Source: Qatar Tribune