Winter weather woes continued in the Deep South on Tuesday as a snowstorm dumped more than 30 centimetres in some areas, causing three fatal car accidents and cancelling thousands of flights.
Atlanta's airport -- normally the busiest in the world -- had about 1,500 flights grounded Tuesday.
The storm knocked out power and left some truckers sitting on the side of the road for more than 24 hours.
Passengers at a downtown Atlanta bus station were stranded for 24 hours without food or water.
"How can they let people starve? It's just terrible," a woman said.
Eventually, a local restaurant heard of their plight and brought them sandwiches.
The weather system is headed northeast with about 25 centimetres forecasted for New York, which had just dug itself out of a major winter storm over the holidays.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was heavily criticized for his administration's handling of the last storm, and may not mind the chance for a do-over.
"We didn't do the job that New Yorkers rightly expect of us in the last storm and we intend to make sure that that does not happen again," Bloomberg told a news conference on Tuesday.
The city has hired a small army of snow plows – about 1,700 in all – to prepare for the storm.
While the storm is expected to hit Tuesday, its worst is not expected until Wednesday, right around rush hour.
The storm is also expected to dump more than 30 cm in Boston.
About 10 to 15 cm is expected come down in Nova Scotia starting Wednesday, Environment Canada says.
In the U.S. South, millions of frustrated drivers just stayed off the roads, mostly do to a lack of snow equipment. Atlanta, for example, only had 10 pieces of snow equipment for its roads.
Many schools and other institutions planned to stay closed on Wednesday.
The storm has a financial toll on southern governments that don't put much away for winter weather. North Carolina has already spent $26 million of its $30-million budget for storm-related costs.
