A powerful nor’easter is working its way along the East Coast, shutting down schools, vaccination sites and travel as it threatens to dump up to two feet of snow in parts of the region.

The storm will bring heavy snow and winds from Pennsylvania to Maine through Tuesday, according to forecasters at the National Weather Service. They expect a widespread snowfall of up to 8 inches, with more in many places.

“This intense snowfall combined with strong winds will create near blizzard conditions with extremely limited visibility, making travel difficult to impossible”, - the NWS said.

Forecasters warned of widespread heavy snow, gusty winds, near blizzard conditions and coastal impacts across the region, including in the Philadelphia, New York and Boston metro areas. The NWS projected “major to extreme” impacts to commerce and travel along and west of the I-95 Corridor, with scattered downed trees and power outages in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England.

Winter storm warnings were in place for much of the Eastern Seaboard. The governors of Connecticut and New Jersey declared states of emergency, as did the cities of Philadelphia and New York, where Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an order restricting nonessential travel until Tuesday morning.