As a formidable winter storm unleashed its fury upon the Northeast and parts of the South over the weekend, Lisa Patterson had initially intended to remain at her family’s residence in Nashville. However, the storm’s relentless force soon thwarted her plans.

After losing power, and with fallen trees blocking their driveway, Lisa and her husband found their wood stove inadequate against the bitter cold. They were ultimately compelled to seek refuge in a warming shelter, taking their dog along for safety.

“I’ve experienced being snowed in for nearly three weeks without being able to navigate my driveway due to snow,” Patterson explained. “I’m prepared for that. But this was unlike anything I’ve encountered before.”

The Pattersons were just one of many families across Tennessee and the broader South who sought solace in warming shelters. This exodus came as crews labored tirelessly to restore power to countless homes, amid predictions of a fresh wave of arctic air poised to deliver more freezing temperatures to regions already enveloped in snow and ice.

Tragically, the harsh conditions have resulted in at least 30 fatalities across affected states. These include two individuals struck by snowplows in Massachusetts and Ohio, teenagers who perished in sledding accidents in Arkansas and Texas, and a woman discovered beneath a blanket of snow in Kansas. In New York City alone, officials reported the discovery of eight people who had succumbed to the elements over the frigid weekend.

The storm had dropped over a foot (30 centimeters) of snow across a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) swath from Arkansas to New England, halting traffic, canceling thousands of flights and triggering wide school closures Monday. The National Weather Service said areas north of Pittsburgh got up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of snow and faced wind chills as low as minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31 degrees Celsius) late Monday into Tuesday.

More widespread record cold temperatures were forecast for Tuesday, with eastern Texas through western Pennsylvania under extreme cold warnings, according to the National Weather Service. In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear warned that the temperatures could be so frigid that as little as 10 minutes outside “could result in frostbite or hypothermia.”

And forecasters said it’s possible another winter storm could hit parts of the East Coast this weekend.

There were still more than 550,000 power outages in the nation Monday night, according to poweroutage.com. Most of them were in the South, where weekend blasts of freezing rain caused tree limbs and power lines to snap, inflicting crippling outages on northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee. Officials warned that it could take days for power to be restored.

In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday at least 14 homes and 20 public roads had major damage in the aftermath of the state’s worst ice storm since 1994. The University of Mississippi canceled classes for the entire week as its Oxford campus remained coated in treacherous ice.

New York City saw its snowiest day in years, with neighborhoods recording 8 to 15 inches (20 to 38 centimeters) of snow, forcing the nation’s largest public school system to shut down.

Meanwhile, bitter cold followed in the storm’s wake. Communities across the Midwest, South and Northeast awakened Monday to subzero weather. The entire Lower 48 states were forecast to have their coldest average low temperature of minus 9.8 F (minus 12.3 C) since January 2014.

Nathan Hoffner sent his 4-year-old son to stay with his son’s mother after his rental house in Nashville lost power midday Sunday. He and his roommate layered up with clothes and several blankets overnight and by the next morning the temperature inside the home had dropped dramatically.

“I saw my breath in the house,” Hoffner said.

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Kramon reported from Atlanta. Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writers around the country contributed.