WASHINGTON — A deadly blizzard with bone-chilling winds and potentially record-breaking snowfall slammed the eastern United States on Saturday, as officials urged millions in the storm's path to seek shelter — warning the worst is yet to come.
US news reports said at least eight people had died as of late Friday from causes related to the monster snowstorm, which is expected to last until early Sunday.
Forecasters predict the blizzard — dubbed "Snowzilla" by some US media — could dump more than two feet (61 centimetres) of snow in Washington DC and the surrounding area by late Saturday, leaving residents holed up indoors to ride out the storm.
Robert Maloney, director of the Baltimore office of emergency management, said that as of 1100 GMT Saturday (6pm Thailand time), his city had been smothered by about 30cm of snow -- and he added there was a lot more to come.
"I wouldn't say we're even halfway there yet," Maloney told CNN.
A blizzard warning was in effect for a large swath of the eastern United States from Washington up to New York, as battalions of snow ploughs and salt spreaders labored through the night and into Saturday.
The storm is expected to affect about 85 million Americans — about one quarter of the US population. Before it's all over, it could cause more than $1 billion in damage, National Weather Service (NWS) officials said.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican presidential contender, left the campaign trail in New Hampshire to oversee the emergency response in his snowbound state. He ordered the state's bus and light rail services to stop running, then took to Twitter to reassure residents that the crisis was well in hand.
"The overall message is, we will get through the storm. We always do. That is the way we do things in NJ," the Republican governor tweeted.
Several southern states, meanwhile, were also hit by snow and sleet — unusual for the region — with tens of thousands without power.
In Kentucky, thousands of motorists became stranded overnight on a backup along a 55-kilometre ice-slickened stretch of Interstate 75, and remained trapped on the road early Saturday.
All along the east coast, frantic shoppers emptied grocery store shelves in preparation for the storm, and schools and government offices in Washington were all closed.
"I think it's going to be a disaster," Sharonda Brown, a nurse, said as she waited for an Uber car with a full cart of groceries at a Washington supermarket stormed by shoppers.
Winds were expected to pick up overnight, prompting Washington police chief Cathy Lanier to urge residents to stay indoors.
"With the increasing winds and increasing snow accumulation, now we're going to see more and more people stranded," she told CNN.
Crews were out clearing the roads throughout the US capital, while others turned to shovels. Among them was 28-year-old William Duren, who was clearing a sidewalk outside a downtown Washington hotel.
"Usually when we see snow in the forecast, it turns out to be only an inch or so. They always exaggerate on TV," he said, before adding that this time, the forecasters appeared to be right. "It's a doozy."
Several thousand flights were cancelled because of the storm, while officials in Washington took the unusual step of closing down the city's rail and bus system from Friday night until Monday morning.
Metrorail — the second busiest underground train network in the United States after New York — serves about 700,000 customers a day in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.
If the blizzard leaves as much snow in Washington as forecast, it could surpass a record set in 1922 by a storm that dumped 28 inches over three days and killed 100 people after a roof collapsed at a theatre.
US Capitol Police have said they were lifting a decades-old sledding ban, but the national monuments, Capitol building and Smithsonian museums were all closed.
Even a massive snowball fight in Washington's Dupont Circle neighbourhood, which nearly 2,000 people said they would attend on Facebook, had to be postponed from Saturday to Sunday due to the storm's ferocity.
Snow and sleet has already hit the southern states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia, with 18 states under blizzard or other winter storm warnings, the Weather Channel reported.
"We're having a lot of accidents," said Pat McCrory, governor of North Carolina, where some of the fatalities were reported to have occurred.
Nearly 95,000 people were without power in the state, emergency officials said on Twitter. CNN reported that nearly 133,000 were without power across the Southeast.
Farther north in New York, the storm was expected to dump up to a foot of snow from early Saturday to midday Sunday, the NWS reported.
The frigid weather marks a stark departure from what has otherwise been a mild winter along the Eastern Seaboard.
On Christmas Eve, temperatures in New York's Central Park peaked at 22 Celsius, the warmest ever for the day since records began in 1871.
Snow ploughs clear a street during the storm in downtown Washington, DC. (AFP photo)