Many states in the eastern United States have been hit by snowstorms

Washington, January 3 (Xinhua) -- Many states in the eastern United States were hit by a snowstorm on the 3rd, causing at least 5 deaths, a large number of flights delayed or cancelled, and hundreds of thousands of users without power.

A Maryland car collided with a snowplow, killing three people, and a child in Tennessee and Georgia each lost his life as a tree overturned and destroyed the house.

This is the White House after a snow shoot in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by Aaron)

According to the National Weather Service, snow falls between 2 and 15 inches (about 51 mm to 381 mm) in and around Washington, D.C., and the surrounding states of Virginia and Maryland. Among them, Washington snowfall reached 8.5 inches (about 216 mm), the largest single-day snowfall since January 2016.

Heavy snowfalls have a serious impact on local travel. According to U.S. flight tracking website data, more than 7,000 flights were delayed and more than 3,000 flights were cancelled that day.

Blizzard also caused hundreds of thousands of users to lose power. As of 21:00 local time on the 3rd, more than 340,000 users in Virginia, where the situation is most severe, have not restored power supply.

Affected by the blizzard, some public schools in Virginia and Maryland were closed from 3 to 4 days. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on the 3rd that the opening date of the city's public schools was postponed to the 6th.