A "life and death" blizzard killed at least eight people on Friday in the United States and snowfall during the storm is expected to range between 18 to 40 inches.
The blizzard, which is expected to bury Washington DC in 30 inches of snow, has hit other states in the east coast as well, leading to a power outage in at least 1,20,000 houses in the US.
The states of Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and West Virginia declared emergency on Friday, while Washington declared a "snow emergency".
Two of the eight deaths were due to traffic accidents in North Carolina, Olivia James, spokeswoman of the State Emergency Response Team, said according to CNN.
The major snow storm has also resulted in cancellation of 4,500 flights that were scheduled for Friday and Saturday, the news portal reported.
"We have a forecast that we did not had in 90 years. It has life-and-death implication, and all the residents of the District of Columbia should treat it that way," Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted Washington DC Mayor Miriel E Bowser as saying. He added that the District National Guard has been deployed in the region.
"The combination of heavy snowfall and strong winds will produce whiteout conditions and extremely dangerous travel," PTI quoted the National Weather Service as saying.
The Virginia State Police was engaged till late Friday night attending to 989 traffic crashes and 793 stranded vehicles.
The National Weather Service warned that the snowfall would get worse from 1 am on Friday to 1 pm Saturday, according to CNN.
Seventy-five million people are reportedly in the path of the snowstorm, out of which 30 million are under blizzard watches or warnings.
