NEW YORK, Jan 23: Travellers were stranded across the north-eastern United States on Sunday as a fierce snowstorm shut down airports and made roads treacherous.

Boston's Logan National Airport was closed indefinitely and thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled at airports in north-eastern and mid-western US states as residents dug out from the first major snowstorm of the year.

A blizzard warning was in effect on Sunday for parts of eastern New York and New England with the National Weather Service warning the storm could rival the "Great Blizzard" of 1978.

"A few locations will likely approach or even exceed amounts (of snow) received during the 1978 blizzard," the National Weather Service said in a "hazardous weather outlook."

The National Weather Service warned of the dangers of snow drifts and possible power outages on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard in south-eastern Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney declared a state of emergency in his north-eastern state where 28 inches to 38 inches of snow was expected to fall. More than 1,000 flights in and out of New York and Boston, and 700 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, were cancelled on Saturday.

"It's a complete and utter mess," summed up Rally Caparas, an air travel expert with Travelocity.com, an online reservation service, appearing on CNN television, which reported a total of 3,000 flight cancellations on its website.

Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania reopened on Sunday after being closed late Saturday because of poor visibility, officials said, but significant delays as well as flight cancellations were reported at other airports including some in New Jersey, Baltimore in Maryland, and Washington. British airports cancelled 31 flights to and from the United States' north-east region, British officials said. -AFP