NEW YORK: At least eight people have died in the massive snowstorm is sweeping through the US north-east and Canada.

About 510,000 homes and businesses remained without power yesterday, down from a total of about 650,000. Roads across the New York-to-Boston corridor of roughly 25 million people were impassable.

At least five deaths in the US were blamed on the snowstorm, including that of an 11-year-old boy in Boston who was overcome by carbon monoxide as he sat in a car to keep warm while his father shovelled snow.