Massive US snowstorm heads north to New England

One of the worst US blizzards in decades is continuing north, with parts of New England likely to record up to 16in (41cm) of snow.

Long Island has suffered whiteout conditions and New York City saw nearly 11in of snow by Sunday.

The slow-moving monster - known as a nor'easter - has sprawled 500 miles (800km) over a dozen states, affecting about a quarter of the US population.

It has sparked emergencies in a number of states and cities.

Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and Delaware, along with Washington and Philadelphia, at some stage all declared them.

Stranded train

Blizzard warnings are still in place in some parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

For those looking for a white Christmas, this certainly will stick around Bruce Sullivan US National Weather Service

Washington DC earlier saw the largest snowfall ever recorded in a single December day and southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snow in almost four years.

Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty expressed confidence that most city streets would be cleared by Monday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said thousands of workers were out clearing streets on Sunday.

He remained upbeat, saying the snow fell too late on Saturday to affect Christmas trading severely.

"Hopefully, we'll have a little bit of a white Christmas," he said.

Some tourists were happy. Briton Kevin Sanders said: "We just came off the Statue of Liberty when it came down last night, and look this morning. It's amazing. It gives it the Christmas feel as well."

Others suffered more difficulties - about 150 people were stranded for five hours on a Long Island train.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled into New York airports but they are now trying to return to normal.

Airports in Washington, Baltimore and Boston were also still experiencing severe problems.

Snowstorm blankets US East Coast

The storm has also brought wind gusts of up to 60mph (96km/h).

Hundreds of thousands of householders earlier lost power in West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina.

The Greyhound bus firm cancelled services on nearly 300 routes across the eastern seaboard, while Amtrak trains experienced major delays.

HAVE YOUR SAY

The people who were driving small cars were slipping and sliding and crashing into parked cars

Steve, Arlington, Virginia

In Virginia, several hundred motorists were earlier stranded in their vehicles and had to be rescued by the National Guard. Some 500 people sought refuge in emergency shelters.

Three people died in Virginia. One was killed when a car hit a tree, a second died of exposure and a third was also apparently killed in a road traffic accident.

In Ohio, two people died in accidents on snow-covered roads hit by the same storm system.

The system originated over the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing flash floods in much of the US south-east.

The rain turned to snow as the storm tracked north-eastward into sub-freezing temperatures.