US braced for travel chaos with 11,000 flights axed due to incoming winter storm

Forecasts predict heavy snow and catastrophic ice from east Texas to North Carolina, alongside dangerously cold temperatures and minus 40-degree wind chills - (AP)

More than 11,000 flights across the U.S. set to take off over the weekend have been canceled as a monster storm starts to wreak havoc across much of the country.

The storm is threatening to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways with dangerous ice. Roughly 140 million people, or more than 40% of the U.S. population, were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England.