Hurricane Sandy continued to scramble the presidential campaign map on Saturday as the Obama administration and governors across the eastern third of the United States kept a close eye on the storm.

The storm currently sits off the coast of Florida, and tropical storm watches and warnings are in effect in the Carolinas. Federal officials warned that the East Coast from South Carolina on up should be prepared for heavy rains and winds - and inland areas could see up to 2 feet or more of snow.

Tropical storm conditions now present off the coast of North Carolina are expected to soon creep northward. The forecast from the National Hurricane Center projects landfall around Delaware and New Jersey sometime late Monday or early Tuesday.

"With this storm we are going to be dealing with a lot of weather over a large geographic area," said Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate in a conference call with reporters. Fugate spoke with President Barack Obama and other top administration officials Saturday morning in preparation for the storm and emphasized to the media to get out the word that it won't only be coastal areas deluged. Sandy's reach will extend to areas far inland like the Ohio Valley and Appalachian regions and may cause flooding with the D.C. area's rivers.

Mitt Romney canceled all of his events scheduled for Virginia on Sunday and has decided to go to Ohio instead. Obama will try to beat out Sandy by leaving Washington for Florida on Sunday, before the brunt of the storm is expected to hit the D.C. metro area.

In addition to campaigning in Florida on Monday, the president also has events scheduled for Monday in Virginia and Ohio, both states expected to be impacted by the storm. Obama is scheduled to head west of the storm track on Tuesday.

Both White House and campaign officials downplayed the storm's potential effect on turnout in swing states as well as the optics of campaigning during a looming disaster.

"We're closely monitoring the storm. The safety of not only our staff but also our supporters and volunteers is the top priority," said Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki in a gaggle with reporters.

The Romney camp has rescheduled the three events it had penciled in for Sunday in Virginia. Instead, Romney will fly Sunday morning to Dayton, Ohio, and link up with his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, for three campaign stops in Celina, Findlay and Marion. The campaign said the change is a cautionary move aimed to ensure that resources would not be diverted due to the storm.

Fugate said FEMA is "not engaged or involved in any of those decisions" at the campaign level for either candidate.

In Kissimmee, Fla., Romney told the crowd to keep those in the hurricane's path "in your minds and in your hearts. You know how [hard] these hurricanes can be."

Romney will stay away from the storm on Monday while he campaigns in Iowa, then it's on to New Hampshire on Tuesday for the first time in weeks, with a stop in Milford, about an hour away from the University of New Hampshire. The school's campus is closed Monday and Tuesday in preparation for the storm, leading to the cancellation of First Lady Michelle Obama's appearance at the school on Tuesday. Vice President Joe Biden canceled an event Friday that was scheduled to take place in Virginia Beach on Saturday.

Hurricane Sandy weakened to tropical storm status Saturday morning before surging back to hurricane strength. The storm is projected to remain at or near-hurricane strength before interacting with a cold front. Until then, a wide swath of the East Coast waits to see how strong winds will be when they come ashore. As of 5 p.m. Saturday, Sandy had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.

"We cannot pinpoint exactly where it's going to come ashore," said National Hurricane Center director Dr. Rick Knabb. Knabb said people from Virginia north should be preparing for "weather to go downhill" well into next week.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it would prepare facilities and equipment in the storm's path with a top priority to keep air traffic control systems up to speed to "support disaster relief efforts." The FAA said that it's in close contact with airlines and that in general commercial flights will cease into and out of airports in the storm's path well ahead of conditions reaching dangerous levels. Many airlines like US Airways, United and American Airlines have relaxed change fees to East Coast cities and are encouraging customers to take preemptive actions.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked the president to declare a disaster before the storm makes landfall to open up the state's access to FEMA funds. He was later joined in the request by Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), who sent the president a letter late Friday in which she wrote that "due to the anticipated magnitude of Hurricane Sandy, state and local governments in the Hudson Valley may be unable to fully respond without federal assistance."

Fugate said the timing of such a disaster declaration "does not preclude the assistance that is already going" to states in the storm's sites, including financial aid.

Disaster-related emergencies have been declared by Cuomo, Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue and Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray.

Both Christie and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell have now announced mandatory evacuations in coastal areas. Vice President Biden campaigned in Lynchburg, Va., on Saturday, though not with his son Beau as originally intended, who due to his official duties as attorney general stayed in Delaware.

"He just literally drove down from Wilmington, he was sitting in Air Force Two as we were about to take off," Biden said according to a pool report. "He called and said, 'Dad, the governor has just called up the National Guard. I'm going home.'"

This story was written by Burgess Everett with contributions from Maggie Haberman and Bob King. The story can be found here.