Dozens of people have died and millions forced to shelter from snow after winter storms tore across the United States over the festive period.
Huge disruption was reported across the country on Christmas Day after people were left trapped inside their properties as a result of heaping snow drifts.
Power was also knocked out from tens of thousands of homes and businesses, while more than 1,700 domestic and international flights had been cancelled and major roads closed, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
The scope of the storm has been described as almost unprecedented, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico and killing a reported 34 people in total.
About 60 per cent of the US population had been placed under some sort of weather advisory or warning over the weekend, with temperatures far below the average level from an area stretching east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.
Some of the fiercest weather was seen in the city of Buffalo in New York State, where hurricane-force winds and blizzards caused whiteout conditions that left emergency response efforts paralysed and some vehicles stranded.
At least sixteen of the 34 deaths reported across the US in connection with the storm are understood to have occurred in the city and surrounding county, with one dad tragically found dead on the street on his birthday.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Christmas Eve that almost every fire engine in Buffalo was stranded, and asked people a day later to adhere by a driving ban imposed while the adverse weather is ongoing.
She described it as the "most devastating storm in Buffalo’s long storied history" because of its ferocity and impact on emergency services.
Cars were seen almost completely covered by six-foot snowdrifts, while many houses were left with their decorations unlit from power cuts.
The Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain in New York City's Bryant Park meanwhile came to resemble an ice sculpture after it froze over completely.
Forecasters have now warned that one-to-two more feet of snow could now fall in some areas on Monday morning, with wind gusts of 40mph expected.
Two "isolated" instances of looting have also been confirmed during the storm, police confirmed.
Power and heating began to be restored in many parts of the US late on Christmas Day, with fewer than 200,000 customers left without power at 3pm EDT (8pm GMT) on Sunday, compared with a peak of 1.7 million.
