A major winter storm sweeping across the United States this week has paralyzed travel, shut down schools, and strained emergency services across several states, with the hardest impacts reported in the Midwest and Northeast. The system began intensifying late Monday night and into Tuesday morning, bringing heavy snowfall, freezing rain, and powerful winds that created dangerous conditions from Illinois and Indiana through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and into parts of New York and New England. Officials in multiple jurisdictions issued travel advisories and emergency alerts as road conditions deterior