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Thousands in America shiver without power

— PHOTO: AP

BONE-CHILLING: A pedestrian walks underneath ice-covered power lines near downtown McAlester, Oklahoma, on Tuesday.

McALESTER (Oklahoma): Hundreds of people hunkered down in emergency shelters, and thousands stuck it out in darkened homes after a winter storm that left 54 dead in nine U.S. states.

About 3,20,000 homes and businesses in several states were still without electricity late on Tuesday after a storm that brought ice, snow, flooding and high winds to a swath of the country from Texas to Maine.

Subfreezing temperatures were expected to continue in the state on Wednesday, with little sunshine to aid in melting the ice until Thursday or Friday, said the National Weather Service. The storm had largely blown out of New England by Tuesday, but forecasters expected more freezing rain to hit parts of Texas on Wednesday night, said the weather service.

Since Friday, the storm system's waves of freezing rain, sleet and snow have been blamed for at least 20 deaths in Oklahoma, nine in Missouri, eight in Iowa, four each in New York and Michigan, five in Texas, three in Arkansas and one each in Maine and Indiana. — AP

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