Powerful snowstorm threatens US East Coast; flights canceled

Employee Donald Mills loads bags of ice melt for customers at Strosniders Hardware store in Silver Spring, Maryland January 21, 2016.[Photo/Agencies]

In North Carolina, two women died late on Wednesday in car accidents on slippery roadways, the governor's office said.

The US government's personnel office did not respond to a query about whether federal offices in the Washington area would close on Friday.

The storm was expected to deliver a slightly weaker wallop to the New York and Long Island areas with blizzard conditions from Saturday morning through Sunday.

New York canceled its Winter Jam in Central Park, set for Saturday, even after the snow-starved city had spent days making

artificial snow for the winter sports festival.

Governors in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Pennsylvania joined Bowser in declaring states of emergency, and the governor of West Virginia declared a state of preparedness.