A woman bundles up while walking in downtown Manhattan in New York. Photo: Reuters

A deadly blast of Arctic air shattered decades-old temperature records as it enveloped the eastern United States yesterday, snarling air, road and rail travel, driving energy prices higher and overwhelming shelters for home-less people.

At least nine deaths have been reported across the country connected with the polar air mass that swept over North America during the past few days.

Authorities have put about half of the US under a wind chill warning or cold weather advisory.

Temperatures were expected to be 14 to 19 degrees Celsius below normal from the Midwest to the Southeast, the National Weather Service said.

PJM Interconnection, the agency that oversees the electric grid supplying the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest, said electricity suppliers were struggling to keep up with surging demand as the cold forced some power plants to shut.

Our neighbours are experiencing the same extreme conditions

“This particular cold is far-reaching, and most of our neighbours are experiencing the extreme conditions we are,” said Michael Kormos, executive vice president for operations at PJM Interconnection.

Oil refiners were also hit, with Marathon Petroleum Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp both experiencing cold-related outages.

In Oklahoma, a depleted supply of propane due to extreme weather led Governor Mary Fallin to declare a state of emergency, waiving licensing requirements for out-of-state transportation companies to allow them to bring in propane.

Homeless shelters and public buildings took in people who were freezing outside.

Daniel Dashner, a 33-year-old homeless man who typically sleeps under a bridge on Milwaukee’s south side, said he opted to seek a spot at a shelter on Monday night.

“Usually if I have four or five blankets, I can stay pretty warm, but when that wind is blowing, I don’t care how many blankets I have, the wind blows right through me,” he said, as temperatures fell to minus 21 degrees Celsius.

But the extreme cold will not last much longer, according to AccuWeather.com.

The frigid air and “polar vortex” that affected about 240 million people in the US and southern Canada will depart during the second half of this week, and a far-reaching January thaw will begin, according to Accu-Weather.com.