A STUDENT from Burley-in-Wharfedale and fellow British students were confined to their halls of residence as the huge snowstorm hit the east coast of the United States.

Hattie Charnley-Shaw sent her grandfather, Roger Charnley, photographs of her and fellow British students standing in the snow outside the halls at University of Maryland.

The university has been closed as a result of the storm and Hattie and her colleagues have had to stay mostly indoors in the halls of residence on the university campus.

Meanwhile, few American students made it onto the campus because of the severe disruptions to transport.

Mr Charnley said: "Luckily their power supplies were not disrupted in their part of Maryland - unlike some of the nearby States. Some quiet studying in her apartment was therefore possible this weekend."

She also told her grandfather she had taken part in her biggest snowball fight ever.

The former Ilkley Grammar School student is in her second year at Manchester University, and is reading American Studies. The course includes the current semester in Maryland.

She arrived last Monday, just 48 hours ahead of the USA's worst storm and blizzards for over a hundred years.