11:27am UK, Sunday December 20, 2009

Jo Couzens,
Sky News Online

At least five people have died as snow blankets much of the East Coast of the United States with more than a foot of snow.

Air travel and public transport have been crippled in one of the worst storms the region has seen in decades.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without power in the blizzard stretching from the Carolinas north to New England.

It has also spread into some Midwestern states.

The 16ins of snow that fell at Reagan National Airport outside Washington was the most ever recorded for a single December day.

Nearly 2ft fell in some areas, and a blizzard warning was issued in the US capital, Washington DC.

Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty asked District of Columbia residents to keep off the streets as the city faced what one TV station dubbed “The Shopper Stopper Storm”.

Obama returned to snow-covered Washington DC from Copenhagen summit

But as public transport ground to a halt it was not enough to keep senators from staying in session to debate healthcare reform.

Democrats secured the pivotal 60th vote of holdout Senator Ben Nelson that was needed to ensure passage of the healthcare overhaul bill by Christmas.

The storm is expected to push through the mid-Atlantic region and blanket areas further north, including Philadelphia and New York.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Boston, owing to powerful winds and a heavy snowfall of one to two inches an hour.

Forecasters are predicting 10 to 15ins of snow for the New York metropolitan area, with higher amounts possible on the New Jersey coast and eastern Long Island.

Trains have also been affected by the snow.

Amtrak spokesperson Vernae Graham said trains along the northeast corridor between Boston and Washington were being delayed by up to an hour.

A state of emergency was declared by the governors of Virginia and Maryland and the states’ National Guard services were called to respond to the storm.