A fierce winter storm bringing high winds and huge snowfalls to the northeastern United States also is having effects here.

Ohio travelers were sent scrambling Friday as flights to and from the East Coast were shut down. Four flights from Dayton International Airport to New York and Newark N.J. were canceled Friday, and a combined 25 arrivals and 24 departures were canceled at the Cincinnati and Columbus airports, including flights to Philadelphia, Boston and Toronto.

More than 3,700 flights had been canceled nationally by 4 p.m. Friday, according to Dayton Aviation Director Terrence Slaybaugh.

“The airlines have been more cautious because of the new federal legislation about how long they can leave people on a runway,” Slaybaugh said. “They’re canceling flights earlier … and a lot of those are canceled in anticipation of weather, not because of the weather itself.”

Connie Schriber of UniGlobe VIP Travel said she spent much of Thursday rearranging travel plans for business clients who travel between here and the East Coast each week. She said the backlog that will be caused by canceled flights likely will take a few days to sort out.

“We have a lot of clients who live in Boston area, and they knew if they didn’t get home (Thursday), they wouldn’t be getting home until the first of the week,” Schriber said. “Everybody wants to be home with their families, not stuck in an airport over a weekend.”

Local businesses were also adjusting. Foremost Seafood, which supplies local restaurants and individuals, planned ahead because of the storm, ordering extra seafood from suppliers in the south, west and mid-Atlantic. Owner Tom Patterson expects supply lines to be back to normal next week.

“Things that are flown in from the Mediterranean or from Scotland, we probably won’t get those shipments out this weekend,” Patterson said. “We have Ash Wednesday, Valentine’s Day and the first Friday of Lent all next week. This is a huge week coming up for fish. Had this storm taken place on Tuesday of next week, that could have been pretty serious.”

The weather will be serious for people living along the Atlantic coast from the New York City area north to Maine. WHIO Chief Meteorologist Jamie Simpson said Boston could see two feet of snow through sunset Saturday, and areas northwest of the city could get more than three feet, along with wind gusts to 50 mph.

Simpson said a similar storm in 1978 paralyzed areas of Massachusetts for three days after the storm ended, with roofs collapsing under heavy snow and power going out in many areas.

Local utility companies are already trying to help regions being hit by the storm

Duke Energy spokeswoman Tina Worley said her company has released about 350 Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana contractors to help. Worley said Duke doesn’t release contractors or employees until they’ve reviewed forecasts to be sure that the local region is not going to be affected by storms.

After multiple severe ice and wind storms in the past five years, Southwest Ohio has not had any widespread or long-lasting power outages this winter, Worley said.

Lesley Sprigg, director of corporate communications for Dayton Power and Light, said the company has released more than 100 of its contractors to help other power companies. DP&L has 48 contract line technicians heading to northern Michigan and eastern Pennsylvania, plus 56 contract vegetation/tree trimmers heading toward the Boston area, according to Sprigg.

The storm could have an impact on Ohio gas prices, but that’s hard to predict at this point, according to Gregg Laskoski, a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com.

Laskoski said given the size and intensity of the storm, there could be a multi-day period with very little gas usage across a large region. That would build up supply, and potentially flatten out the recent surge that drove the average local gas price from $3.06 a month ago to $3.59 this week.

Laskoski said the flip side is that any storm-related power outages or service interruptions at refineries in the northeast could prevent that build-up in supply from taking place.

While the East Coast gets pounded, weather in the area isn’t expected to be much of a problem this weekend.

Simpson said Saturday will be sunny and chilly, with temperatures rising from a morning low in the upper teens to a high in the mid-30s. Sunday will bring highs in the 40s and some rain, and Simpson said the first half of the week should be dry, with temperatures at or above normal.