Dozens killed in winter storm

Buffalo was hit by more than four feet of snow.Jalen Wright for The New York Times

As a fierce storm brought bitter cold to much of the U.S., western New York was hit particularly hard, with at least 28 people killed over four days of the blizzard. At one point on Friday, roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population was under winter warnings or advisories.

Officials in Buffalo, where there is as much as 49 inches (125 centimeters) of snow on the ground, said it was the worst winter storm in more than 50 years. Many roads were left impassable, thousand of people are still without power and the death toll is expected to rise. Scores of vehicles were abandoned during the storm and had yet to be removed, an official said.

The bad weather left thousands of travelers stranded at airports across the country, as a wave of canceled flights spoiled holiday plans and kept families from returning home during one of the busiest travel stretches of the year. People were forced to sleep on airport floors and wait for hours on end on tarmacs or in customer service lines.

Elsewhere: Strong winds took down power lines throughout the country. In Maine, one of the states hit hardest by power outages, more than 17,000 homes and businesses remained without power on Monday afternoon, according to state utility companies’ maps.