Frigid storm across US claims at least 34 lives

Millions of people hunkered down against a deep freeze Sunday to ride out the winter storm that has killed at least 34 people across the United States and is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses with heaping snow drifts and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

About 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.  Some 1,707 domestic and international flights were canceled on Sunday as of about 2 p.m. EDT, according to the tracking site FlightAware. 

The National Weather Service said the snow total at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport stood at 109 centimeters at 7 a.m. Sunday. With snow swirling down untouched and impassable streets, forecasters warned that an additional 1 to one to two feet of snow was possible in some areas through early Monday morning amid wind gusts of 40 mph.