A brutal cold spell that paralyzed the US Midwest, freezing water mains, causing power outages and canceling flights, eased on Friday, with forecasts predicting a rapid thaw. The two days of intense cold from the so-called polar vortex that descended on the US Midwest and Northeast will go down in memory for its scenes of winter at its most bitter. Blocks of ice floated down the river that runs through downtown Chicago, the rushing waters of the Niagara Falls were frozen in some places, and half the Great Lakes were covered in ice.
