Emma Simpson: The storms have brought chaos for many travellers

Meanwhile, thousands of people have spent a second night in airports across the region waiting for snow to be cleared following the storms.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Canada's Pearson International airport in Toronto and Buffalo was closed.

Motorists were stranded in snowdrifts

Air Canada and Canadian Airlines International say it could be Wednesday before the backlog of stranded passengers is cleared.

Bitter winds and cold air left by the killer blizzards are now threatening more snow around the Great Lakes.

High winds and even tornadoes in some areas kept temperatures well below freezing on Monday as people battled with the aftermath of the storm which wiped out electricity supplies and left many roads impassable.

Temperatures plummeted to as low as -28C. Schools in many cities, including Chicago, remained closed.

In Buffalo, where the snow fell at up to two inches and hour and winds gusted at 45mph, a ban was imposed on on all nonessential travel in the city.

But elsewhere in the region flights began operating after a weekend of disruption to clear a backlog of hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded by the blizzard over the New Year break.

Record snowfall

Chicago was buried under nearly two feet of snow in 24 hours over the weekend - making it the second-heaviest snowstorm in the city's history.

Some 700 snow-removal vehicles spread 300,000 tonnes of salt on the streets.

Arctic sea mist engulfs a ferry en route to Portland, Maine

The blizzard also dumped snow on Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Many of the deaths, at least 50 in the US and eight in Canada, were caused by heart attacks brought on by shovelling snow.

In Pennsylvania, a handicapped man froze to death in his wheelchair while trying to get home from a New Year's Eve party.

Others were killed in car smashes - including a 60-vehicle pile-up in Wisconsin - as the ice turned roads into death traps.

Busy time for airports

The storm shut down many Midwest airports on one of the busiest weekends in the year. Nearly 2 million people were struggling to return home at the end of the holiday season.

Nine inuits were killed in a New Year avalanche in Quebec

Thousands of passengers ended up sleeping at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after United Airlines and American Airlines cancelled more than half their flights.

O'Hare, the world's busiest airport, was scheduled to handle 240,000 passengers on Sunday alone.

The story was the same at Detroit where airport staff were forced to borrow blankets and pillows from Wayne County jail to distribute to stranded passengers.

Power cuts

More than 450,000 homes and businesses across the eastern half of the country also lost electricity during the storm.

Freezing rain cut power for almost 250,000 customers across South Carolina. It may not be fully restored until Tuesday.