Christmas weather: Ice storm leaves many without power across U.S.

The ice that snapped utility poles and knocked out power to more than half a million people in the U.S. and Canada was stubbornly hanging on Wednesday as frigid temperatures cloaked a region from the Great Lakes to New England.

In the U.S., the nationwide death toll from the storm reached at least 14 on Tuesday, when a 50-year-old man in Maine was overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from a generator. 

It was the second reported death attributed to fumes from a generator during the storm.

In Canada, five people were reported dead from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. Police said two people in Ontario died after using a gas generator to heat their blacked-out home northeast of Toronto.

Utility crews from Maine to Michigan and into Canada made progress getting the lights back on Wednesday and people were slowly trickling out of shelters to spend Christmas Day at their finally-warm homes.

The number of customers in Maine without power had dropped to 60,000 by Wednesday. In Michigan, about 156,000 people were still without power Wednesday afternoon, down from more than 500,000 at the storm's peak. Snow is falling across most of the state and temperatures are in the teens and 20s.

The ice storm last weekend was one of the worst to hit during a Christmas week and repair crews were working around the clock to restore service. States that weren't hit were sending crews to help.

In Canada, about 160,000 customers were without power Wednesday. There were 72,000 customers without power in Toronto, down from 300,000 at the height of the outages, and Mayor Rob Ford said some may not have power restored until the weekend.