A winter storm which lashed wide swathes of the south-eastern United States has dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Washington metro region as it marches north towards New York.
The icy weather threatened more power cuts and transport disruption.
In New York City a 36-year-old pregnant woman was killed when she was hit by a private snowplough.
The woman’s baby was said to be in a critical but stable condition after an emergency Caesarean section.
Streets were deserted in Washington. As southerners did a day earlier, many heeded warnings to stay off the roads.
The sound of plastic shovels against the pavement rang out, and cars were capped in white. Eleven inches of snow had accumulated, with more falling. Federal offices and the city’s two main airports were closed.
Baltimore awoke to 15 inches of snow. Snow blowers roared, breaking the quiet of the city centre as they cleared pavements in a sleeting rain. But every cleared strip created a potential hazard as it quickly iced over.
Though the worst of the storm has largely passed for most in the south, some parts remained a world of ice-laden trees and driveways early yesterday. Hundreds of thousands are still without power, and 13 deaths were blamed on the weather.
For the mid-Atlantic states and north-east, the heavy weather is the latest in an unending drumbeat of storms that have depleted salt supplies and caused schools to run out of snow days.
At least 11 deaths across the region were blamed on the treacherous weather on Wednesday, including three people who were killed when an ambulance careened off an icy Texas road and caught fire.
Nearly 3,300 airline flights nationwide were cancelled. The National Weather Service called the storm “catastrophic … crippling … paralysing … choose your adjective”.
President Barack Obama declared a disaster area in South Carolina and for parts of Georgia, opening the way for federal aid. Ice combined with wind gusts up to 30 mph snapped tree limbs and power lines on Wednesday. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost electricity in Georgia, 130,000 in South Carolina and nearly 30,000 in Louisiana. Some people could be in the dark for days.