Highways and sidewalks turned treacherous Saturday for the millions of people living in the Northeast as the region's first big storm of the season piled up a foot of blowing snow, grounding airline flights, taking a bite out of pre-Christmas shopping, and canceling SAT exams.
At least eight deaths were blamed on the storm, and police urged people to just stay home.
``There will be other weekends to Christmas shop _ this isn't the one,'' said Rhode Island State Police Sgt. Scott Hemingway.
Some holiday shoppers braved hazardous roads anyway.
Jim Guinee and his wife, of Berkeley Heights, N.J., headed out to do some Christmas shopping with 10 inches of snow on the ground.
The couple said they were happy to find the stores ``pretty empty.''
Snow fell at a rate of about an inch an hour at Binghamton, N.Y., and the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of Maine, Connecticut, southeastern New York and New Jersey. Stiff wind blew the snow sideways in places and whipped up rough surf along the coast.
The snow created just the right wintry scene for retailers selling Christmas trees and wreaths in Hamden, Conn., but it didn't do much for sales.
``This hurts business,'' said Sally Jaynes, whose family owns Broken Arrow Nursery and Evergreen Farm.
Retailers may be lucky the snowstorm hit earlier rather than later -- the busiest pre-Christmas retail day over the past few years has been the Saturday before Christmas.
``It's quieter, but definitely steady,'' said Chris Conway, manager of a Barnes and Noble book store in Manchester, Conn.
In New York City, however, it was business as usual for many shops.
``It was completely packed earlier,'' said Felix Olivo, manager of the Sharper Image near Rockefeller Center. ``People are coming into this area to see the tree or see the shows. It could have been better if it weren't snowing, but business wasn't hurt in any way by the storm.''
Meteorologists warned that as much as 2 feet of snow was possible by Sunday in parts of Massachusetts and Vermont, and the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for much of Maine. Parts of northern New Jersey had 15 inches of snow by early evening, and a foot was measured in parts of western Maryland, Connecticut and the New York City area.
``What we're seeing now is the tip of the iceberg,'' meteorologist Roger Hill of Worcester, Vt., said Saturday morning. ``The beast is going to be here shortly.''
The snow was too deep for some of man's best friends.
In Swampscott, Mass., Phil MacLaughlin said it wasn't easy walking his Chihuahua, El Jefe. ``He won't go in the snow because he'd be snout deep,'' MacLaughlin said.
The first wave of snow struck Friday, and by Saturday highways were coated with layers of snow and slush.
``The roads out there are really, really bad, very slippery,'' said Kory Kiser, 25, of North Windham, Conn., who was at work as a contract cable TV installer in spite of the storm.
Community and church groups canceled activities Saturday from Pennsylvania into Maine, and many school districts postponed SAT college entrance tests. Race horses stayed in their stables, some colleges called off football games and high school football championships were postponed in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
A Manhattan tribute to singer Lena Horne was postponed, and Bruce Springsteen's Saturday night Christmas concert at Asbury Park, N.J., the seaside resort where he rose to fame, was called off until Monday.
Friday's Springsteen show went on as scheduled but there were a few empty seats. ``I don't know how you got here, but I'm glad you did,'' he told the hundreds of fans who did show up.
In New York City, Broadway shows went on as scheduled.
Air travel was a mess.
Hundreds of flights were canceled at the New York metropolitan area's La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark airports, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reported. Of the more than 800 landings and departures scheduled Saturday at Boston's Logan airport, 350 were canceled by Saturday night, according to a spokeswoman.
The storm was expected to move out of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut overnight, but states like Vermont and Maine were bracing for more snow.
Hundreds of travelers had spent the night camped out at La Guardia. Sherry Long was scheduled to leave at 11 a.m. Friday to fly home to Miami, but by Saturday afternoon, she was still at the airport. She was booked on another flight, but said: ``There's no guarantee.''
The storm was blamed for one traffic death in Pennsylvania, one in Connecticut, and two each in New Jersey, Vermont and Virginia.
AP Writers Noreen Gillespie, Laura Walsh and Pat Eaton-Robb in Connecticut; Krista Larson in New Jersey; Fred Lief in AP Sports; Candace Smith in Washington; Verena Dobnik in New York; Foster Klug in Maryland; Ed Golden in Massachusetts, and Lisa Rathke in Vermont contributed to this report.
