11 killed as US is hit by whiteout

Snow storms today left large areas of north-east America in a state of emergency with at least 11 people killed in road accidents and warnings of flooding to come.

More than 30 inches fell in some areas in just 24 hours, the heaviest in October for more than 100 years.

It brought down power lines, leaving three million homes and businesses without electricity in New York City, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, West Virginia and New Hampshire. Howling winds and heavy wet snow snapped enormous trees "like twigs".

The blizzards caught major transport disruption. At least 48 passengers on an Amtrak train bound for Boston were stranded for 13 hours when a rock slide blocked the tracks in central Massachusetts.

There were reports that 126 passengers were stuck for more than seven hours on the tarmac at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, without food, water or working lavatories. Forecasters warned the thaw could cause even more problems for areas still recovering from Hurricanes Irene and Lee.

In Connecticut, governor Dannel Malloy said the state experienced the largest number of power cuts recorded. Across the state, emergency centres were opened for stranded people.

"It's going to be a more difficult situation than we experienced in Irene, he added. "We are expecting extensive and long-term power outages." Forecaster Chris Vaccaro, of the National Weather Service, said because the trees had not yet shed all their leaves larger amounts of snow stayed among the branches, causing more to trees to fall. He said: "You have absolute tree carnage with this heavy snow straining the branches."

Mr Vaccaro added that the snow storm "absolutely crushed previous records that in some cases dated back more than 100 years". Saturday was only the fourth snowy October day in Central Park since records began 135 years ago.