"We don't have weather events like this," Mayor Kasim Reed said on CNN in Atlanta, where about five inches of snow has fallen. "I think the amount of snow we're getting is probably a 10-year event for the city."

The governors of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee declared states of emergencies. Schools, businesses and government offices are closed, and at least two deaths, both in Louisiana, are being blamed on the storm.

More than 2,000 flights were canceled on Monday as a result of the storm pummeling the Southeast, most of them into and out of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, the nation's busiest airport, according to the tracking company, FlightAware.

Hartsfield-Jackson was open Monday morning but with limited service. AirTran Airways canceled all 376 Monday flights to and from its Atlanta hub. Delta Air Lines canceled about 1,450 flights, spokesman Anthony Black said.

"We're running a limited operation (at Hartsfield-Jackson) today and we expect that to continue throughout the afternoon and evening," Black said. "We're urging customers to go to Delta.com to check on the status of their flight."

The bullseye for snow totals, Weather Channel meteorologist Mark Ressler says, has been northern Alabama and southern Tennessee. In Alabama, Muscle Shoals has received 10 inches and Huntsville about 8 inches. In Tennessee, the small towns of Minor (13 inches) and Pulaski (11 inches) have seen the most snow.

Energy from this storm will combine with another one currently in the Plains to deliver more snow later Tuesday and into Wednesday to the northern Mid-Atlantic and New England, Ressler reports. New York City could see a foot of snow, while some parts of New England could see blizzard conditions. Snow totals could approach two feet.

Southerners are not used to the kinds of driving conditions caused by the storm that rolled in Sunday night and coated bridges and roads with snow, sleet and freezing rain. Many drivers simply abandoned their vehicles alongside roads in the Atlanta area.

Parts of the region could be in for more traffic nightmares. By midmorning Monday, the snow had ended in the Atlanta area and was replaced by freezing rain and sleet, said Vaughn Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"We're expecting up to ¼ inch of accumulation of ice on top of what we've already got," he said.

Temperatures in Atlanta and North Georgia were not expected to rise above freezing until midday Tuesday, meaning treacherous driving conditions are expected through the Tuesday morning rush hour.

Georgia's new governor, Republican Nathan Deal, scaled back Monday's inauguration celebration and urged drivers to stay off the roads.

In Georgia, officials in Conyers, a suburb in east metropolitan Atlanta, closed Interstate 20 in both directions because of dangerous driving conditions. DOT spokesman David Spear said such closures are short-lived "until we can get an incident cleared."

Elsewhere, several vehicles, including a Greyhound bus, are stranded on Interstate 75. The Georgia Department of Transportation is warning motorists that if they do go out to be prepared to stay in their vehicles in case they break down or slip off the road.

In Alabama, the Montgomery and Huntsville airports have re-opened, said Jennifer Ardis, Gov. Bob Riley's deputy press secretary.

• Winter storm-related fatalities were reported in Shreveport and Monroe, La., even though storm conditions in the state were not as bad as expected, said Lt. Julie Lewis, a Louisiana State Police spokeswoman.

"What was initially predicted sounded a whole lot worse than what we got," she said. "We have icing on bridges and elevated overpasses, but nothing severe, nothing like what we saw in 2000. As far as I know, all the main roadways and all the major thoroughfares are open."

— A record 5.7 inches of snow fell in Little Rock, part of preciptation that rendered many roads impassable. State troopers reported thick ice on Interstate 55 in northeast Arkansas and similar conditions on Interstate 40 in western Arkansas near Ozark.

Gov. Mike Beebe allowed non-essential state employees to take the day off today because of icy, snowy roads.

— The Mississippi Department of Transportation reported icy accumulation on bridges and roads in Warren, Yazoo, Issaquena, Sharkey, Humphreys, Holmes, Washington, Sunflower and Bolivar counties. MDOT is urging people to stay home unless they have to travel.

— Snow halted traffic on Interstate 40 near the North Carolina-Tennessee line.

Brooks Gaynes, owner of Danny's Towing in North Carolina, said she'd had only a few calls from motorists "probably because we had so much snow they stayed off the road this time." But she said tractor trailers on I-40 about 25 miles east of the Tennessee line were keeping her busy.

Western North Carolina has had up to a foot of snow in places. Fletcher, N.C., has gotten about six inches. "The roads are slick underneath that snow. It's really slippery," said Ron Ratkowski of the Fletcher Fire Department. "The best advice is to stay at home, relax and have a cup of coffee."

Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport had no departures Monday morning, after many carriers decided not to bring in planes the previous night because of the coming storm. A trickle of flights began to land and take off later in the morning.

"It's been sporadic during the day, but with the airlines holding back on flights, we took the opportunity to get our airfield ready for when they were ready to operate," said Dave Edwards, the airport's executive director.

Contributing: Associated Press; Jon Ostendorff, The Asheville Citizen-Times; Charisse Jones and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY