By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Forecasters were expecting the brunt of a winter storm to hit central Maine late Saturday and continue through this morning, with howling winds likely to cause drifting and snarl travel.

In Massachusetts, with 2 feet or more of snow expected in some parts of the state, along with coastal flooding and near hurricane-strength winds bringing subzero wind chills, Gov. Mitt Romney on Saturday declared a state of emergency for the state.

The National Weather Service said central Maine could expect between 6 and 12 inches of snow from the storm.

“And, depending on the storm track, it will probably end up closer to 12 inches,” forecaster Jim Hayes said Saturday at the weather service’s Gray office. The center of the storm is expected to continue up the coast, stay on the land rather than moving off to sea, he said.

Hayes said the weather service is expecting the heaviest snowfall between 4 and 10 a.m. today. It should begin tapering off midmorning, he said.

“But that’s only half the story here,” Hayes said. “The winds could really be the biggest factor.”

Hayes said central Maine could see gusts of 20 to 45 miles an hour beginning about 2 a.m. today and continuing until early Monday morning.

“So you can count on anything that falls to blow around and form drifts,” Hayes said. “Considering everything, it’s going to make travel around the area incredibly difficult.”

Temperatures in Maine fell to 36 below zero at Masardis, and Bangor dropped to a record low of 29 below.Maine State Patrol reduced the speed on the Maine Turnpike and I-295 to 45 miles an hour before 6 p.m. Saturday in expectation of the storm.

The city of Lewiston declared an emergency parking ban to ease the way for snowplows until 7 this morning.

The cancellation of airport travel in Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh prevented Sun Journal sports reporter Randy Whitehouse from covering the New England Patriots-Pittsburgh Steelers playoff football game.

In Massachusetts, Romney activated the National Guard in case coastal areas need to be evacuated.

“The snow is falling not in inches, but in feet,” Romney said during a visit to the state highway department’s Lexington depot, where dozens of plows, salters and sanders were being deployed. “We also have a full moon and that means a tidal surge, and we expect 3 to 6 feet above normal high tide.”

As snow began whirling Saturday night, Massachusetts residents mobbed hardware stores, supermarkets and video stores..

Joe Basile, owner of Mike’s Movies in Boston, said the video store had been flooded with customers all day, snapping up movies to help pass the storm.

“They’re tearing up the new releases,” Basile said. “They’re stocking up on multiple copies, because they don’t know when they’ll be out again.”Nationwide, hundreds of airline flights were canceled Saturday and fleets of road plows were warmed up as the paralyzing snowstorm barreled out of the Midwest and spread across the Northeast.

Storm warnings were posted from Wisconsin to New England, where the National Weather Service posted blizzard warnings in effect through today.

One man died after falling through ice on a pond in Ohio, where two others died of apparent heart attacks while removing snow, authorities said.

Meteorologists predicted wind up to 50 mph would push wind chill readings to 8 below zero in New York and New Jersey.

In New York, residents were advised to keep their cars off the road for the weekend as snow removers tried to clear 6,300 miles of roadway. Nearly 7 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park by Saturday evening. Almost 9 inches were reported on the eastern tip of Long Island, the National Weather Service said.

Up to a foot of snow had fallen in Wisconsin and Michigan, and wind gusted to more than 60 mph across Iowa. As much as 18 inches of snow was forecast in northern New Jersey and accumulations of up to 20 inches were possible in parts of New England and the New York City area, the weather service said. A foot was likely in northern sections of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

While crews in the Midwest labored to remove what already had fallen, highway departments in the Northeast readied hundreds of plows and salt-spreading trucks. New York City canceled all vacations for its sanitation workers and called people in on their days off to handle the snow. Kennedy International Airport had machines capable of melting 500 tons of snow an hour.

If 20 inches of snow fell in New York, the cost of cleanup could hit $20 million, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that was a problem for another day.

“The first thing is we’re going to take care of the city,” Bloomberg said. “And then Monday morning, I’ll have to worry about how to pay for it.”

“This is our Super Bowl. It’s the public servants versus the elements, and we hope to win,” said Philadelphia Managing Director Phil Goldsmith.

The blowing snow caused frustrating delays as airlines called off flights.

Boston’s Logan Airport remained open as of 7 p.m. Saturday, but hundreds of flights were canceled.

About 400 flights were canceled at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and dozens more were called off at the city’s Midway Airport. More than 200 people stayed the night at the two airports because of flights canceled the night before.

Even more chain-reaction cancellations were expected at Chicago and elsewhere as the storm clamped down on airports on the East Coast, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Annette Martinez.

The New York metropolitan area’s Kennedy and Newark airports had dozens of cancellations as the storm arrived Saturday afternoon, said Port Authority spokesman Alan Hicks. LaGuardia had nearly 200 cancellations by 2 p.m.

By noon at Philadelphia International Airport, the storm had already wiped out about 25 percent of the normal load of 1,100 daily arrivals and departures. A private jet and a commuter plane slid off a taxiway at Pittsburgh International Airport; no one was injured.

Hundreds of workers at the football stadiums in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia cleaned snow off tarps covering the fields in preparation for the National Football League conference title games that would be held in each city Sunday.

On the highways, Pennsylvania State Police reported dozens of accidents, including one involving 11 cars. New Jersey banned tractor-trailer rigs and motorcycles from the New Jersey Turnpike and slashed the speed limit to 45 mph.

Amtrak said there were minimal delays for its trains Saturday in the Northeast corridor, but it would have a reduced schedule between Washington and Boston and in upstate New York today.

Detroit delayed the opening of its first annual Motown Winter Blast for several hours to give road crews a chance to clear highways. SAT tests for prospective college students were canceled in Maryland, and several college basketball games were postponed in New Jersey.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.