Elementary Students in New York Return Home After Being Stuck at School Because of Snowstorm

— -- Students in upstate New York who were stuck at school overnight because of a heavy snowstorm have returned safely to their homes this morning, school officials said.

Students at West Elementary and Allendale Elementary schools in West Seneca, New York, spent Thursday night in school classrooms when road conditions became treacherous. At one point, school buses carrying nearly 50 students were told to return to the school, according to the school district.

West Seneca was blanketed with 26 inches of snow by 10 p.m. Thursday, the Buffalo News reported.

Parents said they received robocalls throughout the night informing them about the situation, ABC News affiliate WKBW in Buffalo reported.

"It was scary not knowing the whereabouts. I didn’t know what school he was at, at first, and then he had called," parent Jamie Weixlmann told WKBW of her son. “It was scary but it was good to know they were in safe hands here at school.”

School officials said via Twitter that the students and faculty were eating pizza, watching movies and playing board games. "Things are great," West Elementary principal Carolyn Anderson said in a tweet.

The superintendent's office for the West Seneca Central School District did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

The nasty weather currently affecting residents in upstate New York will next head to mid-Atlantic states and southern New England.

Winter storm advisories were in effect from Alabama to the southern Delmarva Peninsula, including Birmingham, Greenville/Spartanburg, Charlotte, Durham and Norfolk, according to the National Weather Service.

As much as 56 inches of snow has pummeled the Sierra Nevada mountain range so far this week, due to a persistent plume of jet stream off the Pacific Northwest. That jet stream will move to the South and East regions, according to ABC News meteorologists.

Meanwhile, forecasts indicate a powerful "atmospheric river" event will take aim at California this weekend and into next week with heavy precipitation and high snow levels.

The brunt of the storm is expected to arrive Sunday and Monday, which could unleash floods that the National Weather Service said may be the worst since December 2005.