The East Coast - and much of the nation - is digging out from a storm cycle that in some regions could figure among the worst snowfalls of the past century.

What will undoubtedly be called the Blizzard of '05 -and become a new benchmark for winter irascibility - dumped up to three feet of snow in some parts of the Northeast and caused dangerously high winds, whiteout conditions, and some coastal flooding.

It marked an exclamation point to a storm that began in Canada Saturday morning, moved across the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic, and then ended - with considerable hubris - in New England Sunday. While many Northeasterners awoke Sunday to a 12- to 24-inch blanket, residents here were not caught off guard. Meteorologists had been warning the nation of this storm, a series of quick-moving clippers, all week.

Thus both residents and city officials throughout the region were far more prepared than during some storms of the past: In Massachusetts, video and grocery stores were mobbed before snow began falling Saturday. Hundreds of snow plows and salt trucks were deployed. It helped, too, that the worst of the storm hit on the weekend, before the Monday rush hour.

Nonetheless, the storm disrupted travel across the Midwest and East Coast, with hundreds of flights canceled and some airports shut down. Indeed, for southern New England, expected to bear the brunt of the storm, this could prove to be among the worst residents have ever faced - and continues an onslaught of freakish weather that has hit the globe in the past month, from the tsunamis in Asia, to the mudslides in California, to this powerful nor'easter.

"For Boston and southern New England, it could rank within the top 10, if not top five, biggest storms in terms of snowfall," says Chris Vaccaro of the National Weather Service. It is being compared to Boston's blizzard of 1978, when 27.1 inches of snow immobilized the city.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney declared a state of emergency over the weekend, activating the National Guard in case residents in coastal areas needed to be evacuated. The US Coast Guard sent a jet over the North Atlantic, warning mariners of dangerous weather to come. They also broadcast a forecast of high winds and seas in advance.

Before even a snowflake fell Sunday in the Boston area, stores reported runs on snow shovels, snowblowers, rock salt, fireplace logs, mittens - even weird-looking earmuffs.

Movie renters mobbed a Hollywood Express in Somerville, Mass. - stocking up on two, three, and four movies a piece. At a Star Market in Cambridge, Mass., shoppers fought for food carts and queued up, sometimes impatiently, in checkout lines. One man remarked as he finally reached the cashier: "After all this, it had better snow."

He need not have worried. Just hours later showers began falling up to two inches per hour in Massachusetts and other parts of New England. Some places, like Manhattan's Central Park, saw record snowfalls for that date.

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