Stretches of the Boardwalk were desolate, much to the consternation of Eric Shepherd, a pedicab driver who had given only one slippery, wind-whipped ride by mid-afternoon.
"At this time of the year, it kind of hurts to lose a whole day," said the well-bundled Shepherd as he looked for fares near the Pier Shops at Caesars, an upscale shopping and dining center that, like much of the city Saturday, was closed. "It's bad enough even if it wasn't snowing out here."
Saturday's was the second serious snowstorm of the year for the southern half of the state, an area that had gone nearly four years without major snow.
On the shore, wind gusts up to 50 mph made for blizzard conditions, and more than 90,000 customers, including 1,000 in Atlantic City, lost power. Gov. Chris Christie said electric crews from around the region were being sent to help restore power, and state crews were clearing secondary roads to help them get to the problem spots.
Across the state in the Philadelphia suburbs, the snow was piling up even faster: Almost 27 inches was reported in National Park at 1 p.m.
Christie said he needed more information to determine whether the storm met the technical requirements for him to declare a state of emergency. Meanwhile, he implored people to stay at home during the storm.
Officials in at least three counties - Atlantic, Camden and Ocean - made emergency declarations to prohibit nonemergency vehicles from traveling on county and municipal streets.
Christie said state police dealt with 70 accidents by mid-afternoon Saturday, none of them life-threatening.
The state's major roads were all passable but not without restrictions. The speed limit was reduced from 65 mph to 35 mph on one stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike.
The speed limit on the four Delaware River Port Authority bridges connecting New Jersey with Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia area had their speed limits dropped from 50 mph to 25 mph.
Most of New Jersey Transit's buses in the southern part of the state were canceled.
The weather was a major problem for Atlantic City, a casino city struggling with a bad economy and growing competition in neighboring states.
The city lost most of its business for one weekend already this season when as much as 2 feet of snow fell on southern New Jersey on Dec. 19.
The casinos Saturday had a captive audience of the gamblers who were in town before the snow began, but nearly every other business was shuttered.
The Atlantic City International Power Boat Show closed for Saturday - usually the biggest day of its annual five-day run.
While some bars and restaurants were open, all the souvenir shops on the Boardwalk were closed.
Monsur Miah, a partner at One Stop, visited his store just to clear the sidewalk and make sure the roof wasn't leaking. "Nobody came from out of state or other cities," he lamented.
To make matters worse, violent waves were washing the beach away and the sheets of snow, falling and blowing, made it hard to see from one hotel tower to the next.
At the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum, employee Daron Belarmino waited for customers to come. At times, he said, the business was empty.
"I'm holding my breath when people walk by," he said. The slick walkway and strong winds made an area near the shop treacherous for walking. "No was has fallen, that I've noticed," he said.
A few people zipped by on the unplowed edge of the Boardwalk on cross-country skis.
Shawna Simmons and Frederick Jenkins of Allentown, Pa., brought her mother and their two kids for a weekend away in their timeshare in a building across the street from Ripley's.
By early afternoon, they had such bad cabin fever that they turned off the TV, bundled up the kids - ages 2 and 4 - and slid their way to Ripley's.
Shawna Simmons said she wasn't going to try to go any farther than that.
Her mother, Charlene Simmons, of Plainfield, N.J., was thinking about tying to go a few blocks to one of the casinos.
"It's not far," she said.
"It's far for me," her daughter retorted.
