Monica struggling without power after heavy snow storm

R&B star Monica has been forced to go back to basics to keep her family warm after a major snow storm knocked out the electricity in her Atlanta, Georgia neighborhood.

The Boy Is Mine hitmaker was among 225,000 people left without power across the East Coast after heavy winds and snow caused chaos in the early hours of Wednesday (12Feb14), and she reveals trees have been crashing to the ground all around her home as a result of the dangerous conditions.

She shared a series of photos of the disaster zone on her Instagram.com page, and revealed that she and her kids were huddling around a wood fire to keep themselves warm.

She wrote, "Ice\Snow Storm... Powers out & trees are breaking & falling in our yard thank God none fell on the house!!! Good thing Mom is from the country!! ...boiling water in my fireplace to warm bottles... so we have all the necessities!!"

But the weather issues weren't the only problems Monica faced - she revealed her youngest child, six-year-old son Romelo, had fallen ill with a fever too.