Travelers deal with major snowstorm fallout
(CNN) -- There was a theme Tuesday to departure boards at airports along the East Coast: Canceled.
With almost 3,000 flights called off Tuesday, passengers had to change their plans for getting home, getting to meetings, getting on with their lives.
Michaele Bates was stuck at LaGuardia Airport in New York, wondering how she was going to get back to Atlanta to make her deliveries on Wednesday.
"I can't get out until Thursday," the small business owner told CNN. "I'm kind of wrecked, but you can't do anything about it. It's the weather."
It's the weather that was causing cities along the East Coast to shut down early Tuesday night as a major snowstorm hampered life and travel in states from North Carolina to Maine.
Winter storm warnings and watches were in effect for all or part of 13 states from the mid-Atlantic to New England. There was a blizzard warning for Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Some areas could see more than a foot of snow, CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Gray said. In New York, the wind chill might bottom out at minus 12 degrees overnight.
Washington, where even the White House took a snow day Tuesday, was expected to get at least 8 inches of snow, forecasters said. Snow also was falling in North Carolina, CNN affiliate WRAL reported.
The storm should push into the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday morning, Gray said.
The areas that are frigid already and the eastern half of the nation will shiver through temperatures 10 to 25 degrees below average.