Winter storm death toll rises to five as East Coast braces for cold blast

More than 500,000 are still without power in the northeast

Five people have been killed by a powerful winter storm that tore through the US East Coast, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power.

Cold winds, dropping temperatures, and snowfall is expected to hit the Northeast as workers move to restore power.

The storm also brought significant flooding, particularly in South Carolina and Pennsylvania. Two people — both in their 70s — drowned in separate incidents in Pennsylvania and South Carolina after floodwaters overtook their vehicles.

Flooding was also responsible for the death of an individual in northern New York on Monday. That person's car was swept away into a creek after they drove onto a flooded road. The driver was eventually found dead by first responders approximately two hours later.

A 40-year-old man in Maine died while trying to remove storm debris from his roof. The man was reportedly on his roof on Monday trying to remove pieces of a tree that had fallen during the storm. Another part of the tree crashed while he was working and reportedly killed him, according to Bangor Daily News.

A falling tree was the force behind another death in Massachusetts. In that incident, a large tree, battered by the storm's winds, toppled over onto a small travel trailer. An 89-year-old man was inside. Police in Hanover were able to remove the man from the trailer, but he had suffered severe head trauma, and was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

The storm ultimately dropped between 2 and 6 inches of rain across the East Coast, driving the deadly flooding in the region and disrupting travel.

More than 1,200 flights heading into Washington DC, New York, or Boston and the surrounding region were delayed and at least 500 canceled due to the storm. Amtrak suspended its operations in Vermont until the storm passed, and numerous regional roadways are still impassable due to the floodwaters.

Erica LaCroix, the town manager of Farmington, Maine, spoke with CNN and described the town as "virtually an island at the moment" due to the flooding.

Fortunately for residents, the floodwaters began to recede on Tuesday.

Unfortunately for residents, the temperature is dropping as well.

Temperatures are set to fall into the 30s and 40s across a large swath of the northeast at a time when more than 500,000 power customers are still waiting to have their electricity restored. The bulk of the outages are in Maine and Massachusetts, while an additional 22,000 are still without electricity in Connecticut.

The storm's presence was felt out to the Great Lakes and Appalachia, where 10 states issued weather alerts in anticipation of heavy snowfall and gusty winds. Up to a foot of snow fell in New York , Ohio, central Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The region is expected to stay cold and windy, with gusts of up to 50mph forecasted.