Massive Winter Storm Envelops East Coast in Snow, Leaves At Least Six Dead, Thousands Without Power and Hundreds of Travelers Stranded

A major winter storm traveling from the Midwest pummeled the Northeast Wednesday night after dumping several inches of snow in the Midwest, causing tornadoes in the South, and delaying thousands of holiday travelers. The storm also reportedly caused the deaths of at least six people, the Associated Press reported.

The storm, which wrecked havoc in several states, is expected to drop around a foot of snow in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Maine going into Thursday. John Kwiatkowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis, told the AP, "The way I've been describing it is as a low-end blizzard, but that's sort of like saying a small Tyrannosaurus rex."

According to the AP, the storm caused tornadoes along the Gulf Coast region and later produced high winds, snow and sleet in the Northeast. Forecasters predict the storm will peter out towards the coast, leaving little to no snow in cities like Philadelphia, New York or Boston. However, the storm is expected to cause severe thunderstorms in the Southeast.

The deadly storm is blamed for the deaths of at least six people in several different states. The AP reported that two people were killed on Wednesdays in a head-on collision on an Arkansas highway and that two more were killed on Tuesday on Oklahoma highways. Wind-toppled trees were blamed for additional deaths in Louisiana and Texas, the AP reported.

Over 2,000 flights were cancelled and more than 12,200 were delayed, FlightStats reported. According to FlightAware, airport delays were reported in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Philadelphia, Pa.; Newark, N.J.; Baltimore, Md.; and Orlando, Fla.

Power outages were also reported in a number of states, particularly Arkansas, where almost 200,000 people lost power, the AP reported. Arkansas biggest utility, Energy Arkansas, told the AP that some residents could be powerless for almost a week due to snapped poles and downed wires. In Indiana, Duke Energy said that almost 300 outages were reported.

The National Weather Service issued severe weather alerts to several states, from Maryland up to Maine. Costal flood advisories were in place for parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

According to Weather.com, the storm, which was dubbed Euclide, dumped record amounts of snowfall on several sates with the top three highest snowfalls recording in Albion, Ill. (18.3"), Jessieville, Ark. (15") and Dudley, Mo.