Winter storm blankets Eastern US and Canada

US: A major winter storm blanketed a swathe of North America in snow Monday as it sliced up the US east coast into Canada, disrupting travel and cutting power to thousands of homes.

The biggest concentration of outages came in the mid-Atlantic state of West Virginia and the southeastern US states of North and South Carolina and Georgia.

Large parts of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario remained under winter storm or blizzard warnings, according to a Canadian Government website.

In Toronto, up to two feet (60 centimetres) of snow was expected — “a historic storm for the city,” tweeted Anthony Farnell, chief meteorologist of Canadian TV channel Global News.

Monday was a national holiday in the United States, so most schools and businesses were already closed, though many people usually take the opportunity to travel during the long weekend.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) said earlier it expected the storm to “slowly wind down today,” but that snow would continue to fall through the evening in upper New York and New England.

The heaviest snowfall was recorded in Ashtabula, Ohio, the agency said. Powerful winds downed trees and caused coastal flooding, with a 12-foot storm surge reported in Boston. – THE MALAY MAIL