Bundle up, forecasters warn, as arctic blast hits eastern US Arctic air blasts Eastern states The National Weather Service warns the bitter cold is expected to continue Forecasters predicted up to four inches of snow in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic Freezing rain is forecast for northern Georgia and portions of Tennessee and the Carolinas Editor's note: Winter weather in your area? Show us how the cold is affecting you. (CNN) -- Aiman Youssef can't catch a break with the weather. First, Superstorm Sandy leveled his home and devastated most of his neighborhood in the New York City borough of Staten Island. Now, an arctic blast that forecasters warn can have deadly consequences is gripping the region. A gas-powered heater and a tent was the only defense Youssef had late Thursday from the biting cold as he handed out jackets and sweaters at a makeshift supply depot he established to help his Midland Beach neighbors who, in some cases, are still struggling to get the power back on. "A lot of people have been coming so we give them jackets, we give them sweaters," he told CNN affiliate NY1. Yeah, we are trying. We are trying our best to help them. But even as he helped his neighbors, he wondered how long he could keep the heater running at the tent where some of his neighbors were seeking shelter. Gas, he said, is expensive. Exposure to subfreezing temperatures has left at least three people dead in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, according to authorities. The National Weather Service forecasters urged caution early Friday as they warned "bitterly cold conditions" were expected to continue across much of the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast into the weekend. Widespread light snow showers were expected across the upper Great Lakes region and across the Ohio Valley before moving later in the day across the eastern United States, according to the weather service. Forecasters at the National Weather Service predicted 1 to 4 inches of snow for areas in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic regions on Friday with the Carolinas and Tennessee Valley getting freezing rain beginning early in the morning. The snow was expected to move later in the day into the eastern United States. It was not good news in portions of New York and New Jersey, where homes destroyed by Superstorm Sandy in places such as Staten Island and Far Rockaway, Queens, lacked basic utilities needed to restore heat. With temperatures plummeting, warming centers were opened in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other areas, according to various emergency management officials. Schools shuttered, planes grounded Dozens of school systems in Tennessee and some in northern Georgia said they would be closed. Schools in Raleigh, North Carolina, will close early, a spokesman with Wake County schools said. "We're going to make sure we put a plan in place so that the buses are rolling while it's still safe and the students are back home before weather becomes an issue," he told CNN affiliate WRAL. Road crews in North Carolina began salting major and secondary roads on Thursday in an attempt to avoid the possible repeat of a January 19, 2005, storm that stranded thousands, including 3,000 Wake University students on campus. Cindy Mease ended up sleeping on the floor of her office after a failed attempt to try to get home in that storm. It was just a cluster. I mean, it was crazy out there," she told CNN affiliate WRAL in Raleigh. (Cars would) hit a hill, and people would just start sliding back down. Travelers were already feeling the effects of the storm. A spokeswoman for Nashville International Airport said all inbound American Airlines flights for Thursday night and Friday morning were canceled. Though she had no official word from other carriers, Emily Richard said she anticipated they also would cancel flights. Caught in the snow The snow in Pennsylvania played a role in the apprehension of suspected armed robbers, according to authorities. Investigators in Moon Township, just outside of Pittsburgh, tracked the footprints of three people and arrested them in connection with the robbery of a taxi driver at gunpoint after tracking their footprints in the fresh snow on Wednesday, police told CNN affiliate KDKA. The footprints in the fresh snow, according to police, led from the scene of the robbery to the front door of one of the suspects. CNN's Steve Almasy, Joe Sutton and Rachel Rodriguez contributed to this report.