Police told a local television station they believed the cold played a factor in his death. The wind chill at the time officers found Belz was minus 51 F (minus 46 C), according to the National Weather Service.

Homeless and displaced people were particularly at risk, with Chicago and other cities setting up warming shelters. But many toughed it out in camps or vacant buildings. A 60-year-old woman found dead in an abandoned house in Lorain, Ohio, was believed to have died of hypothermia, Lorain County Coroner Stephen Evans said.

"There’s just no way if you’re not near a heat source that you can survive for very long out in weather like this," Evans told the Chronicle-Telegram newspaper.

60 DEGREES F BY SATURDAY

It has been more than 20 years since a similar blast of frigid air covered a swath of the US Midwest and Northeast, according to the National Weather Service.

The bitter cold was caused by the mass of air known as the polar vortex drifting south from its usual position over the North Pole.