Thousands of cars abandoned during a snow and ice storm that hammered several southern US states are being retrieved.
Many of the vehicles were left on highways around the cities of Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, which were paralysed when the storm hit on Tuesday.
Traffic was so snarled, people were forced to leave their cars on the road to seek shelter.
The storm delivered between two and 10 centimetres of snow and ice to a region stretching from Louisiana to South Carolina that is not well prepared for winter weather.
Frigid temperatures remain in the forecast for the region, the Weather Channel said.
At least 12 deaths have been blamed on the storm, including five traffic fatalities in Alabama, the Weather Channel said.
More than 11,000 children spent Tuesday night in school buildings, including some in Alabama who spent a second night in their schools because roads were still too dangerous for buses.
The National Weather Service warned travellers that many roads across the region still had a layer of ice on them on Thursday morning, and schools and government offices throughout the region were closed.
"Since the ice is quite thick in many spots hazardous travel conditions will continue across much of the region into Friday morning," the weather service said, adding that any melting that occurs is likely to refreeze overnight.
As the region recovered, elected officials were forced to explain why they failed to foresee the travel chaos, and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed apologised for dismissing schools and businesses at the same time.
"We make a mistake by not staggering when people should leave," said Reed. The resulting exodus clogged interstates around the city, which blocked the trucks dispatched to treat roadways
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