U.S. East Coast hammered by severe Winter storm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Heavy snowfall blanketed the U.S. East Coast on Saturday, forcing most flights to be cancelled in Washington and Baltimore and hampering holiday shoppers on the last weekend before Christmas.

Up to 22 inches (56 cms) of snow was expected to fall by Saturday night in the Baltimore-Washington area and a blizzard warning was issued by the National Weather Service, with wind gusts of 40 mph (64 kph) forecast.

The snowstorm, expected to dump more snow on the region than any storm since at least February 2003, could take a big bite out of retail sales on one of the busiest shopping weekend of the year.

Snow was falling at a rate of about two inches an hour at 5 p.m. British time in the capital region with whiteout conditions reported throughout the area.

The driving snowstorm did not stop U.S. senators from convening and Democrats secured the pivotal 60th vote of holdout Senator Ben Nelson needed to ensure passage of the healthcare overhaul bill by Christmas.

Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty declared a snow emergency. The District of Columbia government asked residents to stay at home as the U.S. capital braced for what one TV station dubbed "The Shopper Stopper Storm."

Fenty was glad the storm came on a weekend. "Mayors never want to have 20 inches of snow. But if you're going to get 20 inches, you have it on a weekend where people don't have to get anywhere, they don't have to get their kids anywhere," he said on NBC 4.

Washington announced the closure of above-ground Metrorail subway operations and stopped all bus services by early afternoon because streets were rapidly becoming impassable.

Airports in the Washington area were open shortly after midday but most flights had been cancelled, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport was open but the majority of the flights on Saturday morning had been cancelled. Airport spokesman Jonathan Dean said many of the airlines had begun cancelling flights on Friday night.

Even NFL football was hit by the storm. It was not clear if the Chicago Bears, whose Friday night charter flight was cancelled because of the snow, would make it to Baltimore for Sunday's game against the Ravens.

Further north, the Philadelphia International Airport was experiencing six-hour delays. New York's LaGuardia Airport was also experiencing numerous airline cancellations.

The storm was expected to pass through the mid-Atlantic region by Sunday morning and blanket points north including Philadelphia and New York City later in the weekend.

Forecasters were predicting 8-12 inches (20-30 cms) of snow for the New York metropolitan area, with higher amounts possible on the New Jersey coast and eastern Long Island.

No snow had fallen by mid-morning and New York area airports were reporting no significant delays. Retailers did brisk business on salt and snow shovels as early as Friday morning as residents braced for the storm.

Trains were also affected by the snow. Amtrak spokesperson Vernae Graham said trains along the northeast corridor between Boston and Washington were delayed by 30 to 60 minutes. There was a two- to three-hour delay on long-distance trains.

In Virginia, Governor Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency and the department of transportation urged motorists to stay off roads, saying that many roads and many interstates in the western part of the state were considered treacherous.

Parts of highway 81 -- a major north-south highway in western Virginia -- was closed in the Shenandoah Valley area.

(Additional reporting by Chris Michaud in New York and Ben Klayman in Chicago, editing by Anthony Boadle)

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