Seven US states have declared a state of emergency as a winter storm continues to strike.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is warning some areas are at risk of seeing their “heaviest snowfall in at least a decade”.
The storm has built across the US since Saturday, producing heavy snow and significant ice, making road conditions increasingly dangerous.
More than 60 million people across some 30 states have been under weather alerts, while the NWS has warnings in place for heavy snowfall from Kansas and Missouri to New Jersey.
The winter storm is being driven by a polar vortex, usually located around the North Pole, which has dipped south and stretched from between the Rocky Mountains to Maine.
As of Monday afternoon, governors from Maryland, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky have declared a state of emergency in response to the storm.
Maryland governor Wes Moore urged residents to “stay off the roads,” while a government statement noted the state will see its heaviest snowfall after midnight on Monday.
National Guard deployed to highways
Meanwhile, the National Guard was deployed in Kansas, western Nebraska, and parts of Indiana to help drivers stranded on roads covered in snow and ice.
The Indiana National Guard said on social media that approximately 120 of its guardsmen were supporting motorists and emergency services in the state, where Interstate 64, Interstate 69 and US Route 41 were partially covered in snow.
Conditions were so adverse in Indiana that State Police Sgt. Todd Ringle said snow ploughs “go through and then within a half hour the roadways are completely covered again”.
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Authorities added that at least 600 motorists were stranded in Missouri, and hundreds of car accidents were reported in Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky – where a state trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after his patrol car was hit.
Virginia State Police also reported 300 car crashes between midnight and 11am on Monday, while the Maryland State Police received 123 crash reports between 1am and 11am.
Local reports seen by Reuters say one man died in southeast Virginia after losing control of his pick-up truck, with police citing both alcohol and the weather as factors.
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DC snowball fight and flights cancelled
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Elsewhere, people in Washington DC gathered for a massive snowball battle in the city’s Meridian Hill Park.
While Congress did meet to formally certify Donald Trump’s election as president, schools and federal buildings were closed over the conditions.
The storm also left more than 330,000 homes and businesses in the central and southern states without power on Monday, according to data from tracker PowerOutage.us.
And as of 1.30pm in New York (6.30pm in the UK), FlightAware.com tracking service said nearly 1,900 flights within, into and out of the US had been cancelled.
