Winter storm Elliott – latest: Driving ban lifted in Buffalo as blizzard deaths hit 38

Mark Poloncarz, the executive of Erie County, said on Monday that police are investigating isolated reports of looting in the region.

“I’m heartbroken about the deaths, just absolutely devastated to see as many deaths. And then to find out that there’s looting going on in our community at the same time we’re still recovering bodies is just horrible,” Mr Poloncarz said.

ABC News reports that Daniel Neaverth, commissioner of the state Homeland Security and Emergency Services, said that more than a dozen gas stations in the county have been reported inoperable “because the convenience side of them has been looted and the equipment inside has been rendered ineffective and thus the pumps for the fueling are ineffective”.

Mr Neaverth said the looting was hampering emergency vehicles from fueling up.

“So if you don't think there's a trickle down from going looting and grabbing individual little things, this is a drastic implication for us that we now have to deal with to find alternate fuel sources,” he said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott appears to have celebrated Christmas this weekend by ensuring that three busloads of migrants would be left in the cold outside of Kamala Harris’s residence.

The Republican state leader has continued, along with Florida’s Ron DeSantis, to use confused migrants and lure them onto buses to take them to areas that will attract media attention under the promise of aid being provided once they arrive. In many if not all cases, the governors have had little to no contact with local authorities to manage the migrants’ arrival and to ensure they are not left out on the street in an unfamiliar town.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

The National Weather Service reports that lake effect snow will continue through Tuesday northeast of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Additional accumulations of 6 to 12 inches are expected off Lake Erie in and near Buffalo, and 1 to 2 feet for Jefferson and northern Lewis counties.

A small town in Michigan called Hell, literally froze over when the “bomb cyclone” swept across the US over the Christmas weekend.

Days of freezing temperatures in Deep South areas that usually freeze for only hours are threatening dozens of water systems as burst pipes leak millions of gallons of water.

The problems were happening Monday in large, troubled water systems like Jackson, Mississippi, where residents were required over Christmas to boil water months after most lost service because of a cascade of problems from years of poor maintenance.

They also are happening in Shreveport, Louisiana, where some residents had no water Monday. In Selma, Alabama, the mayor declared a state of emergency because they city worried it would run out of water. Workers at a food bank in Greenville, South Carolina, opened their doors to a rush of water and were trying to save $1 million in food. Police departments around Atlanta said their 911 systems were being overwhelmed by unnecessary emergency calls about broken pipes.

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Southwest Airlines was the carrier hardest hit by weather-related travel chaos that saw many thousands of travellers stranded on Boxing Day.

The airline was forced to cancel more than 60 per cent of its flights on Monday, among the 5,480 flights that were cancelled across the US, according to the Flight Aware site.

Southwest apologised for the disruption in a statement on its website.

Aside from the icy blast from Winter Storm Elliott, the airline blamed unexpected fog in San Diego and staffing shortages at a fuel depot in Denver, according to CNBC.

Frustrated passengers posted videos of lengthy lines at airports across the US.

Freezing air will continue to dominate the eastern half of the US for the early part of the week, but a big warm-up is predicted from Wednesday onwards. By New Year’s Eve, temperatures will likely be above average for the vast majority of the continental US.

Players for the Buffalo Bills returned to the storm-hit city after playing in Chicago on Saturday to find their cars under heavy snow.

It’s not just North America struggling with severe winter weather.

Heavy snow in large swaths of Japan has killed 17 and injured more than 90 people and left hundreds of homes without power, disaster management officials said Monday.

Powerful winter fronts have dumped heavy snow in northern regions since last week, stranding hundreds of vehicles on highways, delaying delivery services and causing 11 deaths by Saturday. More snowfall over the Christmas weekend brought the number of dead to 17 and injured to 93 by Monday morning, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Many of them had fallen while removing snow from the roofs or were buried underneath thick piles of snow sliding off rooftops.

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A 20-year-old man has been found dead after going missing in Minnesota.

The search for George Musser ended on Christmas Day at around 7pm after his body was found in Baytown Township.

“George’s family has been notified. There is no other information at this time as this case is still under investigation,” police said on Sunday.

Gustaf Kilander reports.