Americans in the nation's midsection are digging out from a huge winter storm that dumped up to 50 centimeters of snow on Wednesday.
The snow closed highways and caused major delays at airports, snarling travel plans for thousands of people trying to head home for the Christmas holiday.
At least seven weather-related traffic deaths were reported.
At the same time, the storm guaranteed a so-called "white Christmas" for parts of southern states where the phenomenon is rare, such as Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.