Cold snap tightens grip on US east coast

The north east of America is under the grip of a record-breaking freeze just a day after a deadly snow-laden that killed 18 people hit the region.

Temperatures in the region is said to have plunged further as the brutal cold spell tightened its grip on the coast.

According to Reuters report, workers battled to clear snow and ice as wind chills were set to fall as low as minus 40C in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.

In the latest fatality blamed on the frigid weather, a driver slid off an icy road, killing a pedestrian, early on Friday in Charleston, South Carolina, city officials said.

The fierce cold will reach from New England to the Midwest and down to the Carolinas forecasters warned, adding that low-temperature records could be broken across the region in the coming days.

Utility companies across the east worked to repair downed power lines as about 31,000 customers, mainly in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina remained without electricity early on Friday.

The storm that swept in on Thursday dumped nearly 30 cm snow throughout the region, including Boston and parts of New Jersey and Maine, before ending early on Friday morning.

The harsh conditions were powered by a rapid plunge in barometric pressure that some weather forecasters called a "bomb cyclone."

Nearly 500 members of the National Guard were activated to assist with the emergency response along the East Coast, including 200 in New York state, authorities said.