Winter storm leaves at least 17 dead in US

At least 17 people have died in the US as the country grapples with a huge winter storm, reports Sky News.

More than 200 million Americans were under weather warnings, as wind chills sent temperatures down as low as -55 Fahrenheit (-48 Celsius), according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

The huge winter storm on Friday pummelling parts of the US intensified into a “bomb cyclone” which leaves over a million US power customers in the dark, closing highways, grounding flights and causing misery for Christmas travellers.

Heavy snow, howling winds and air so frigid it instantly turned boiling water into ice took hold of much of the nation, including normally temperate southern states. In Hamburg, New York, 39-year-old Jennifer Orlando hunkered down with her husband.

“I can’t see across the street,” she told AFP. “We’re not going anywhere.”

The biting cold is an immediate concern for hundreds of thousands of electricity customers who were without power, according to tracker poweroutage.us.

In El Paso, Texas, desperate migrants who had crossed from Mexico huddled for warmth in churches, schools and a civic centre, Rosa Falcon, a school teacher and volunteer told AFP.

But some still chose to stay outside in -15 Fahrenheit temperatures because they feared attention from immigration authorities, she added.

In Chicago, Burke Patten of Night Ministry, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the homeless, said: “We’ve been handing out cold weather gear, including coats, hats, gloves, thermal underwear, blankets and sleeping bags, along with hand and foot warmers.”

Major Caleb Senn, Chicago area commander for the Salvation Army, said the organisation had centres open for people to shelter from the fierce weather.

“Some of the people we are seeing right now, they have just become homeless this year,” he said.

In Canada, stoic last-minute holiday shoppers in downtown Toronto shrugged off the plunging temperatures.