Over 5,000 US flights canceled

An arctic blast that has gripped much of the United States this week, disrupting daily life and holiday travel for millions of Americans, was expected to produce the coldest Christmas Eve on record in several cities from Pennsylvania to Florida, Report informs via Reuters

More than 5,700 US flights were canceled on Friday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware, while blizzard conditions virtually paralyzed road travel in some regions.

With energy systems across the country strained by rising demand for heat and storm-related damage to transmission lines, as many as 1.5 million US homes and businesses were left without power on Friday, according to tracking site Poweroutage.us.