In the USA city governments have reported burning through their entire snow removal budgets with a full two months of winter left.

SHOOT: Quite a nasty time to have to deal with bad weather - when you have no money and energy scarcities are going to kick in. But that's where complacency gets you. There've been many warnings.

clipped from www.cnn.com Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A snowstorm backed by bone-chilling cold began to push into the Deep South on Thursday, re-enforcing record-low temperatures well into Florida. The arctic blast that began over the weekend has been blamed for at least seven deaths across the nation. "There'll be a brief warm-up," Marciano said. "This is a one-two punch, basically, and with the second punch, temperatures are about 5 degrees colder. "It obviously warms up during the day, but to have this many nights [of cold weather] in a row, they haven't seen this in 20 years," Marciano said. In the Deep South, Florida is under a state of emergency because of the threat to the state's lucrative crop industry. In Lauderdale County, Mississippi, coroner Clayton Cobler confirmed that a 68-year-old man was found dead of hypothermia Tuesday in his home. The man lived alone, and heaters in his home were found to be not working, Cobler said.