I was in Buffalo for the Blizzard of 1977 and the Panic of '78 which mainly missed us but did trap 500 people at the old Aud who had gone down to watch the Sabres.
I'd just moved to Buffalo in 1977 from Los Angeles, and when the blizzard began at 11:00 a.m. I was at work in a downtown hotel. Mommies went screaming into the blizzard to rescue their children from warm, dry, safe schools and trap them on buried streets in freezing cars with no food or water; manly northern men went into the blizzard to prove that it was no big deal... and sensible people who worked in hotels rustled up bedding and mattresses, filled up all the bottles and pails with water, and settled down to work. When the work day was over we went down to the bar and drank and played cards. We were there for 3 days and when we came out to either hike home through the drifts or catch a ride with someone in a jeep or truck, we confronted 12 feet of snow and a really interesting couple of weeks coping with it all.
Currently it's -16 with a -27 wind chill, and snowing steadily. Since this is Toronto and not Jamaica, no one is particularly concerned. The grocery store was pretty busy at 8:30 a.m. when I went to do my normal week shopping, but people seem to be going about their business.
It appears that very heavy snow is developing in the northern Virginia/Delaware/Maryland area as the storm is now "jumping" to the coast off the Delmarva peninsula. There is even lightning and thunder in some of these areas and I wouldn't be surprised if some down there get 3-4 inches of snow within an hour!
The precipitation I see on radar is literally exploding. and this should start running up the coast quickly. It looks like the heavy snow should be into the NYC/New Jersey area shortly. For those in Pennsylvania who have seen the snow stop, don't think the storm's over yet! You should get a lot more snow with the wraparound effect. The storm is so intense that a "dry slot" tends to form in the middle of a storm, making it look like a giant comma on the radar.
So it appears that the "bombogenesis" is beginning to happen right now.