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(CNN) -- An advancing blizzard in the northeastern United States on Sunday led officials in the region to declare weather emergencies, forced the postponement of a scheduled National Football League game in Philadelphia and grounded some homeward-bound Christmas travelers.
Governors on Sunday declared a state of emergency in Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts in advance of the approaching storm. The mayors of Philadelphia and Boston also called snow emergencies.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced that the advancing storm will put the commonwealth in a state of emergency starting at 3 p.m. Patrick's early afternoon announcement followed declarations of snow emergencies in Boston and Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter called the emergency in anticipation of a system that is expected to dump up to 14 inches of snow in the region.
"Shoppers, travelers and city residents take advantage of an early start because it (the storm) is coming in a short time," Nutter said during a Sunday morning press conference outside City Hall. "When it comes it will hit very hard."
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Meanwhile, the NFL announced that a game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles -- originally scheduled for Sunday night -- had been postponed until 8:20 p.m. Tuesday.
Nutter, Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino urged residents to stay off the roads if possible. Menino encouraged Boston residents to stay home and requested that area businesses allow their employees to go to work in "staggered commutes," or work from home if possible to help keep the roads clear.
At a 12:30 p.m. press conference, Patrick told reporters that 1,000 plows, sand and salt trucks were on the road in Massachusetts and that as many as 4,000 would be deployed as the storm worsens.
"We expect visibility to be very low and travel to be extremely dangerous," Patrick said.
Patrick also warned of possible overnight flooding, beginning at 3 a.m. Monday, for the state's coastal communities. He urged residents to take necessary precautions.
Similar weather conditions are expected across the region, as blizzard warnings are scheduled to take effect for most of the East Coast north of Washington, D.C., through Sunday and until Monday night.
That includes metropolitan New York City from northeastern New Jersey, to Long Island and the Connecticut coasts of the Long Island Sound, where forecasters are predicting between 11 and 16 inches of snow and sustained winds of 30 miles per hour. In parts of central and eastern Long Island, forecasters predict gusts of up to 55 mph.

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[jayjelectric]

deval patrick...what a tool. this guy declares a state of emergency when we get 4"-6" of snow just after Christmas (on a Sunday). Why would anyone declare a S.O.E. on a Sunday anyway. Now we're getting slammed with 12"+ of snow during a weekday and the guy's nowhere to be found. what the hell? This really needs to go crawl back under his rock...he can take Obama with him.