I live in Maryland and we got hit with 3 feet of snow a couple years back while I was in college. Real briefly I will give you my experience. I was totally unprepared, so a lot of my advice will be negative

Don't plan on going to the grocery store the day before the storm hits. Everybody will have the same idea. You will fight the populous for whatever is left on the shelves. Forget about bread and milk. You'll be enjoying clam juice and sunscreen.

Ditto on buying a shovel. After wasting my time at the grocery store, we decided we might want to buy a shovel. I was having trouble finding one at our local Wal-mart so I asked a salesperson. After they were done laughing hysterically, they managed to tell me they sold out days ago. I ended up using a small Rubbermaid trashcan to dig myself out. Fun.

I had been using an old pair of work boots as my snow boots in the years prior. And they worked great in 1-6 inches of snow. They stink in 3 - 6 foot snow drifts. Own are real pair of snow boots.

Unless you own a Land Rover, Jeep or customized off road vehicle with snow tires, your are not going anywhere. I watched my neighbor in his shiny new F250 work truck get himself stuck in the snow. All-season tires aren't. The clearance under the truck also seems to be a major problem. I am not a "truck" guy so this is just my observations.

We ended up snowed in for about 4 days. The power never went out but our cable did. So I would not call it a survival or emergency situation by a long shot. Just a lesson in basic preparedness. The upshot was the state ran out of places to dump the snow. (They ended up dumping it in Baltimore Habor) And my school couldn't clear the parking lots so classes were cancelled for 5 days.