(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. 
 
 Is winter weather affecting you? Share stories, photos and videos 
 
 "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. ||||| The National Weather Service warned of "extremely dangerous travel" conditions and "numerous power outages" across the region. 
 
 Nearly 3,000 flights were cancelled Friday. 
 
 Philadelphia International Airport preemptively canceled all Saturday flights in anticipation of up to 18 inches of snow. American Airlines canceled all of its Friday flights out of the Washington, Baltimore and Charlotte, North Carolina, airports. 
 
 Amtrak canceled several national services for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including Crescent service from New York to New Orleans, Cardinal service from New York to Chicago and Silver Meteor service from New York to Miami. 
 
 "This is going to be a legitimate blizzard," said Ari Sarsalari, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. "Some of these [snow] numbers are absolutely staggering." 
 
 Saturday will be "an absolute mess," he added, predicting that travel would be "literally impossible anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic region." 
 
 By 3:30 a.m. ET Friday, snow was falling across a crescent stretching from Arkansas through Kentucky and down into North Carolina. 
 
 Snow began falling in Washington, D.C., in the afternoon and 5 inches was observed in one part of the district by around 10:30 p.m., the National Weather Service said. 
 
 The capital could get more than two feet of snow by the time its all over, forecasters said. Baltimore recorded more than 3 inches by just after 10 p.m. 
 
 Up to 8 inches of snow was reported in parts of Arkansas, while the Carolinas could expect even more ice. The highest snowfall total at 5 p.m. Friday was in Jonas Ridge, North Carolina, which got 18 inches. 
 
 One area where the forecast had changed was New England, which now looked likely to miss out on the snow, save for a possible inch in Boston on Saturday, according to Weather Channel lead forecaster Michael Palmer. 
 
 "I think the folks up there are probably used to that, anyway," he said. 
 
 A day after a mere inch of snow paralyzed Washington, transit authorities shut down the D.C.-area Metro system — the nation's second-busiest mass transit network — for the entire weekend. The train system was closed at 11 p.m., and buses were stopped at 5 p.m. 
 
 New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, however, suggested his city is made of sterner stuff and said there were no plans yet to close the subway. Latest forecasts predicted a range of 8 to 14 inches of snow there. 
 
 Many areas were under blizzard advisories because of strong winds forecast for the weekend. Forecasters warned that 60-mph gusts could blow wet, heavy snow into trees, power lines and transformers, presaging widespread power failures in the East from North Carolina to New England. 
 
 And because a full moon will swell tides this weekend, "moderate to major" coastal floods could be in store from Maryland and Delaware to Connecticut — including coastal New York — said Michael Lowry, a storm surge specialist for The Weather Channel. 
 
 The storm is expected to reach so far south that it could affect Sunday's National Football Conference championship game between the Carolina Panthers and the Arizona Cardinals in Charlotte. 
 
 A forecast of freezing rain Friday led the city to cancel a pep rally for the team, and snow up to 3½ inches is forecast for Saturday, when the Cardinals are scheduled to fly to Charlotte ahead of Sunday's game. 
 
 The Cardinals said that, for now, they didn't expect to be delayed. 
 
 But for the team's fans, getting to the game could be tricky. 
 
 "I'm a little nervous," Tyler Vasquez of Phoenix told NBC station KPNX. "I have yet to get an email from my airline, [but] a lot of people in our group that we have that are going on this trip have posted, 'I've got this email or my flight's been canceled.'" 
 
 If necessary, Vasquez said, he'll fly to Atlanta on Saturday and try to make the 4½-hour drive to Charlotte. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, school officials got creative in announcing the cancellation of classes with a district-wide music video. 
 
 The weather system produced entirely different effects further south, with a "possible tornado" causing major damage to two homes and downed trees and power lines in Mississippi's Lamar County late Thursday, according to The National Weather Service. 
 
 In Florida's Calhoun County, radar detected "tornado debris signature" at 4:50 a.m. ET, although both twisters were yet unconfirmed. 
 
 Thunderstorms were also possible across Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, sparked by the same warm air from the Gulf of Mexico that was clashing with cold air further north and producing all that snow.
– The federal government closed up shop today, shutting offices in anticipation of a looming snowstorm that blanketed Chicago with snow yesterday, the AP reports. (The six inches logged at O'Hare best a 1999 record for the date—by more than two inches.) The National Weather Service is predicting six to 12 inches of heavy, slushy snow in DC, though there's a chance the snow could turn to rain as it nears the Atlantic, CNN reports. "We're in our mobilization level 5, which is our highest mobilization level," says one Virginia Department of Transportation employee. Airlines have already cancelled hundreds of flights in the storm's projected path, and at least 4,723 Virginia residents have lost power. Ohio is getting its taste of the storm as well, and schools in Columbus have closed; DC kids are off, too.