Blizzard warnings in three states and flood watches in five states are impacting travel on the ground and in the air.
Nearly all major carriers flying in and out of New York dropped at least some of their flights Friday, leading to about 2,000 cancellations nationwide.
Peter Kim drove to LAX from Fullerton hoping to catch a flight to New York.
"We were going to go to JFK but got snowed in all the flights were canceled," said Kim.
And the flights into JFK that weren't cancelled were delayed about an hour, according to the FAA. It was the same story at Newark's Liberty International.
Snow totals for the day could top three feet in some areas of the Northeast -- falling two to three inches an hour at times. Plows are having a tough time getting ahead of it.
The snow has been falling for two straight days and New York City is up to 17 inches. One million kids got an unexpected snow day.
As for Peter Kim who's still in Los Angeles, the Northeast storm and his canceled flight to New York have forced him to change his vacation plans.
"I'm going go to Hawaii instead now," said Kim. "I just want to go somewhere."
Delta Air Lines, the world's biggest airline, reported 500 cancellations throughout its system, mostly in the Northeast. It diverted some of its international flights at JFK to other airports.
American Airlines and regional affiliate American Eagle axed 200 flights in and out of New York, 10 in Philadelphia and roughly 80 in Washington.
Southwest Airlines scrubbed 297 flights, while US Airways canceled 236 Express flights and 76 mainline flights. JetBlue Airways, which blamed a technical issue with its central computer system for an hour-long grounding of its flights nationwide, nixed 80 flights due to the weather and AirTran Airways canceled 18 flights.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
