Severe winter weather causes travel chaos as planes grounded and over 1,000 flights canceled at Chicago's airports

• Winter storms are battering the US, causing floods, power outages, and travel chaos.
• Thousands of flights have been grounded around Chicago as blizzards hit.
• The record-breaking cold weather has been forecast to continue this weekend. 

Thousands of flights have been canceled across the US ahead of the holiday weekend as powerful winter storms bring dangerous conditions to large parts of the US.

Chicago's airports have weathered most of the disruption, with almost half of all US cancellations involving two of the city's airports on Friday as blizzard warnings were issued.