(CNN) -- A major snowstorm slammed the East Coast and snarled the busy holiday travel season Saturday as airports shut down runways, rail service slowed and bus routes were suspended on the last weekend before Christmas. 
 
 Record snowfall totals were reported Saturday afternoon at Washington Dulles and Reagan National airports -- and snow was still falling. Accumulation at Dulles reached 16 inches, breaking the old record of 10.6 inches set December, 12, 1964; 13.3 inches was reported at Reagan. The old record there was 11.5 inches set December 17, 1932. 
 
 Three deaths in Virginia were blamed on the storm, state officials said. One person was killed late Friday in a single-car crash. Two other deaths were reported Saturday as more heavy snow was expected. 
 
 Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine authorized up to 1,000 National Guardsmen to assist in responding to the storm, which dumped more than 20 inches of snow in parts of the state by Saturday evening. Virginia State Police had responded to nearly 3,000 accidents or disabled vehicles since Friday night, the governor's office said. 
 
 The storm stretched from Tennessee and North Carolina to the southern New England states, blanketing the mid-Atlantic region and the heavily populated I-95 corridor. The forecast called for 12 to 22 inches of snow in some areas. See current flight delay information on the FAA Web site 
 
 CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis said the storm -- known as a nor'easter -- could rival the Knickerbocker blizzard of 1922, which dropped between 28 and 33 inches of snow in the D.C. area. 
 
 "I don't know that it will be a record-breaker, but this is significant," she said. "This is a really bad storm right now." 
 
 The foul weather prompted an emergency declaration in the nation's capital, stranded hundreds of motorists, shut down airports, caused power outages, and threatened to keep hordes of Christmas shoppers indoors. 
 
 The weather delayed start times for two National Football League games Sunday. The Chicago Bears-Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers-Philadelphia Eagles games will be played at 4:15 p.m. instead of 1 p.m. 
 
 Chicago Bears players and staff were scheduled to arrive in Baltimore via a charter late Saturday night, after a single runway was opened at BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport. That runway is expected to remain open for all flights, a spokesman for the Maryland Aviation Airport Authority said. 
 
 A winter storm warning was in effect for the Washington area until 6 a.m. Sunday. Blizzard warnings were issued for New York's Long Island and parts of southern New England with forecasters predicting whiteout conditions due to high winds. 
 
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 "I strongly urge everyone to stay at home and off the roads," said Michael Cline, state coordinator for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. "There are hundreds of vehicles abandoned or stuck on roads. There is already one to two feet of snow on the roads, and snow is still falling." 
 
 Similar warnings were issued by state officials up and down the East Coast. 
 
 Parts of U.S. 29, I-77 and I-81 were closed and hundreds of bus passengers were stranded at a terminal in Washington as nearly 300 routes were canceled from New England to Jacksonville, Florida, Greyhound Bus Lines spokeswoman Maureen Richmond said. Travelers stuck at Greyhound terminals are being made comfortable with assistance from the Red Cross and Salvation Army, Richmond said. See traffic and road closure information on the U.S. DOT Web site 
 
 The storm also affected rail service. Passengers aboard an Amtrak train that originated in New Orleans on Friday morning sat outside Alexandria, Virginia, for more than five hours Saturday afternoon. 
 
 The train had full power, and passengers were being given food and drinks throughout the ordeal, Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said. 
 
 She expected the train to pull into Washington Saturday night. Trains were running 30 to 60 minutes behind schedule early Saturday, and 60 to 90 minutes later in the day. 
 
 Meanwhile, more than 400 people hunkered down in 20 shelters across Virginia. A Virginia National Guard spokesman said it is working with other agencies to transport stranded motorists to shelters, and is getting food and water to people stuck in their vehicles. 
 
 As snow continued to fall in the mid-Atlantic states, folks in western North Carolina were digging out Saturday from the powerful storm. More than 50,000 were without power in Asheville's Buncombe County after more than a foot of snow fell in the mountains. Crews were traveling from Kentucky and South Carolina to help restore power, a spokeswoman for Progress Energy told CNN affiliate WLOS. 
 
 In Washington, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said the storm is "perhaps the biggest we've seen in several years." 
 
 "We are going to throw everything we have at it to keep the district open for business on this busy pre-holiday weekend," Fenty said when he announced the snow emergency. 
 
 But, he also urged residents to stay in their homes. 
 
 "This snow should end early tomorrow morning with a 24-hour cleanup. We should have a lot of streets ready to go by rush hour Monday. And, hopefully, all of it done between Monday and Wednesday." 
 
 Nine people were taken to a hospital after a bus and a city snow plow collided, a D.C. fire official said. The injuries are not considered serious. 
 
 The storm also halted above-ground Metrorail operations in the district because of heavy snowfall covering the electrified third rail, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said. 
 
 Trains were shifted to underground travel, and the underground Metrorail stations will remain open until 3 a.m., the normal closing time for a Saturday night. 
 
 In West Virginia, Gov. Joe Manchin on Saturday declared a state of emergency and "authorized the use of the National Guard to assist with snow removal and emergency assistance and operations." 
 
 West Virginia is working to help stranded motorists, clear roadways, and restore power outages, Manchin said in a statement. 
 
 In Massachusetts, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a snow emergency beginning at 10 p.m. Forecasters are predicting up to 15 inches of snow with 30 mph winds between Saturday night and late Sunday morning. 
 
 Crews were standing by with snow removal equipment and salt, and the city's emergency homeless shelters will be open "throughout the day and evening." 
 
 While the storm caused chaos for weekend travelers and shoppers, UPS spokesman Norman Black on Friday said shipped packages shouldn't be delayed. 
 
 "The good thing for us and our competitors is that this is happening on a weekend," Black said. 
 
 He said that packages set for Monday delivery were on planes that landed and offloaded Friday night. 
 
 UPS never has packages in motion on a Sunday, even the Sunday before Christmas. And because Saturday volume is usually light -- because delivering on Saturday is a premium service -- Black expected few problems. 
 
 That is, unless the roads are still a mess and airports aren't cleaned by Monday. ||||| A worker uses a snow blower to clear a path after the winter storm in Old Town Alexandria, Va. 
 
 Feb. 14, 2014 A worker uses a snow blower to clear a path after the winter storm in Old Town Alexandria, Va. Matt McClain/The Washington Post 
 
 The biggest storm of the season has closed airport runways, stretches of parkways, schools and offices across the region. 
 
 The biggest storm of the season has closed airport runways, stretches of parkways, schools and offices across the region. 
 
 The biggest storm of the season has closed airport runways, stretches of parkways, schools and offices across the region. 
 
 The most significant snowfall in the Washington region since the infamous “Snowmageddon” of 2010 descended with a double bite Thursday, punctuating a winter already cold, harsh and relentless. 
 
 The weather had a familiar, nasty character, beginning overnight and into the morning with snow, then turning to sleet and rain in many places. A few hours after that ended — barely time enough for sidewalk clearing and the digging out of cars — the snow returned for a second round. The Capital Weather Gang’s Dan Stillman said most areas in and around the District picked up another 1 to 3 inches of snow before the storm moved out of the region late Thursday. 
 
 The effects were still being felt Friday, the federal government was opening two hours later than usual and nearly all public schools in the region were closed. Metrobus, which was suspended operations Thursday afternoon because of weather conditions, was to resume at 5 a.m. Friday only on selected major arterials. 
 
 Reagan National and Dulles International airports both reported late Thursday that operations were expected to ramp up Friday, but warned that some flights, especially Friday morning, could be canceled or delayed. 
 
 The heavy snowfall that began late Wednesday shut down the federal government on Thursday, brought air travel to a halt and kept the bulk of the region’s residents at home. 
 
 View Graphic See how much snowfall has hit the region. 
 
 The storm was linked to at least three deaths. A Virginia Department of Transportation contract truck driver working to clear roads died after he was struck by another VDOT truck in Ashburn. Virginia State Police said Lovo Guevara Geovany Arnoldo, 32, of Vienna pulled off the road and was standing behind his truck when he was hit by the second VDOT truck. 
 
 In Howard County, Md., two men in their 50s died after collapsing while shoveling snow, one in Woodstock and the other in Columbia, said Marc Fischer, a spokesman for Howard’s fire and rescue department. A third man was found dead outside, but officials did not know how he had died. Autopsies were expected to be performed Friday. 
 
 “This is deep, heavy snow, and I implore everyone to take it easy,” Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said in a news release. “Please don’t over-exert yourself. Clear a little at a time.” 
 
 By Thursday evening, many of the region’s major school systems had announced they would be closed for a second day Friday, creating a five-day vacation for schoolchildren, who have Monday off for President’s Day. 
 
 For 17-month-old Evalyn Heyman, Thursday brought her first real frolic in the snow. “She loves it,” Leigh Heyman, 42, said as his daughter played on 13th Street in Northwest Washington. “She clearly has Northern parents. She got the whole walking-on-ice thing pretty quickly.” 
 
 The winter weather was forecast to persist into the pre-dawn hours of Friday. Sunshine was expected to bring some melting during the day, but there was the prospect of more light snow later Friday and on Saturday. 
 
 Even before the second round of snow Thursday, Dulles International Airport had recorded more than a foot of snow; Olney, Md., had 15 inches; eight inches had come down on Northeast D.C.; seven in Alexandria; 16 in Germantown, Md.; and 13 in Oakton, Va. Snowfall generally was lighter to the east of the District, although Crofton, Md., had eight inches. 
 
 The bad weather spread across the eastern states, bombarding them with the same snow and ice that paralyzed much of the South on Wednesday. More than 6,000 flights were canceled, most of them in Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York and the Washington region’s three major airports. 
 
 Virginia State Police said they had responded to more than 3,300 calls for assistance statewide, and there were scores of disabled vehicles in Northern Virginia. 
 
 Power outages were surprisingly absent through much of Thursday, but utility companies stood ready overnight if ice and freezing rain topped the heavy snow to bring down lines. As of 8 p.m., Pepco reported a total of about 4,000 outages in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, along with the District. Dominion and Baltimore Gas and Electric had only a few hundred outages between them. 
 
 In a region given to bashing weather forecasters for getting it wrong, there was little for the cynics to complain about this time. 
 
 “I never really believed it,” James Beaner, 40, said of the forecast. “I didn’t think it was going to stop anyone from doing anything.” 
 
 Almost 1,000 flights from the region’s airports were canceled Thursday, and the Brock family had planned to be on one of them. The snow hardly curbed their excitement as they waited at Reagan National Airport in hope of getting a flight to their vacation in Miami. 
 
 Still, Heidi Brock, 50, was thankful for being in a “great entertainment spot” for her young son, motioning to the snow removal process in progress on the closed runways. 
 
 “With a 6-year-old boy, there’s nothing more interesting than airplanes and dump trucks,” she said. 
 
 American Airlines Flight 1575 was the only one to Chicago that had not been canceled. 
 
 When the flight crew arrived about an hour before the 5:20 p.m. scheduled departure, the passengers started to cheer. 
 
 “It’s crazy to see all the cancellations, and then ours is the only one on schedule,” said Matt Bordner, 19, of Dakota, Ill., population 500. 
 
 With schools and most workplaces closed Thursday, people spent the day shoveling snow. But Lloyd Hepner, 72, of Strasburg, Va., was in business. 
 
 “I can make $4,000 to $5,000 in a day,” Hepner said, leaning on his shovel after 20 hours of work. “Four to five inches of snow works good, but this is too much.” 
 
 Asked how he was able to work for so long, the former Chantilly, Va., resident just smiled. “I guess I’m used to it,” Hepner said. 
 
 Justin Williams, 19, and his friend Melvin Anderson, 18, saw snow as a moneymaking possibility, too, as they walked through Fort Washington, Md., with large shovels over their shoulders. But they said only one person in the 11 houses they called on had cash to pay their $25 fee. Everyone else offered checks or credit cards. 
 
 “Nah. man, I ain’t taking nobody’s check to shovel no snow,” Williams said. “How is it no one has any cash out here?” 
 
 The piles of snow next to Will Smith’s Volvo XC90 stood nearly as tall as his SUV, but the 29-year-old had managed to do what almost no one else on his block in Fairfax County had done: dig out his car. 
 
 Smith said the excavation was backbreaking. When asked how long it took, he had to stop and calculate. He finally offered a tally: 90 minutes. 
 
 “I was joking with my wife that they put camping chairs in parking spots in Chicago to save them after they dig their cars out,” Smith said. “I was going to leave a little mound of snow in my spot with my shovel stuck in it, so no one parks in it.” 
 
 The snow was play for Irina Yakadina, 42, and her son, 15-year-old Ilya Besancon. They crafted a motorcycle to accompany the myriad snowmen that others had erected in Logan Circle. 
 
 “Fantastic. Beautiful. It’s a true snow where you can really build stuff,” Yakadina said. “How much better can it get?” 
 
 But for those who live on the streets, bad weather is not a time for fun. 
 
 The organization that runs the emergency shelter for men in Montgomery reported a record number of people seeking their services Wednesday night. After averaging 178 men this winter, they took in 198. 
 
 In Arlington County, emergency shelters for single adults that are typically open only for the night stayed open throughout the cold and snowy day Thursday, said Kathy Sibert, executive director of the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network. 
 
 “We always find a way to make room,” she said. “We never turn anyone away.” 
 
 The District is one of only a handful of jurisdictions nationwide, including New York City and Massachusetts, that gives residents a legal right to shelter on nights when temperatures drop below freezing. 
 
 The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project brought activity packets to snowed-in children at D.C. General on Thursday. Jamila Larson, who is with the group, said children have few places to play inside the shelter and no place to play outside, save for a parking lot and a sidewalk near a methadone clinic. 
 
 “A snow day for kids at the shelter isn’t the same as a snow day for most kids,” she said. “They have nothing to do.” 
 
 Debbi Wilgoren, Matt Zapotosky, Julie Zauzmer, Dan Morse, Theresa Vargas, Michael E. Ruane. T. Rees Shapiro, Michael Rosenwald, Katherine Shaver, Caitlin Gibson, Steve Hendrix, Patrick Svitek, Emma Brown, Patricia Sullivan, Martin Weil, Susan Svrluga, Paul Duggan, Keith Alexander, Antonio Olivo, Michael A. Chandler, Lynh Bui, Luz Lazo, Lori Aratani, Mike DeBonis, Mark Berman, Justin Jouvenal, Brigid Schulte, Katherine Shaver, Donna St. George, Victoria St. Martin, Laura Vozzella, John Wagner, Ovetta Wiggins and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
– The massive storm pounding the East Coast has left three people dead, hundreds of motorists stranded, and airport schedules in chaos. The fatalities occurred in hard-hit Virginia, where major interstates have been shut down, and the National Guard is helping rescue drivers, reports CNN. Nearly 2 feet has fallen in some areas, and DC has shut down all bus and most rail service, notes the Post. Baltimore, Philadelphia, and cities from Tennessee to North Carolina and up to southern New England are being hit. "This snow should end early tomorrow morning with a 24-hour cleanup," said DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. "We should have a lot of streets ready to go by rush hour Monday. And, hopefully, all of it done between Monday and Wednesday."