Residents of the US capital have been urged to stay at home following heavy snowfalls that forecasters said could be the biggest storm witnessed there in modern history.
A record 30 inches (76 centimeters) feet or more was predicted for Washington. As of early today, 10 inches (25.4 cm) of snow was reported at the White House, while parts of Maryland and West Virginia were buried under more than 20 inches (50.8 cm). Forecasters expected snowfall rates to increase, up to 2 inches (5.1 cm) per hours through today.
Blizzard warnings were issued for the District of Columbia, Baltimore, parts of New Jersey and Delaware and some areas west of the Chesapeake Bay.
"Things are fairly manageable, but trees are starting to come down," said D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer, whose agency responded to some of the falling trees. No injuries were reported.
Airlines canceled flights, churches called off weekend services and people wondered if they would be stuck at home for several days in a region ill-equipped to deal with so much snow.
The region's second snowstorm in less than two months has brought heavy, wet snow and strong winds.
Several thousand people in West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania have lost electricity and more power cuts are expected as the snow brings down more power lines. A hospital fire in D.C. sent about three dozen patients scurrying from their rooms to safety in a basement. The blaze started when a snow plow truck caught fire near the building.
Authorities have blamed the storm for hundreds of accidents. Some area hospitals asked people with four-wheel-drive vehicles to volunteer to pick up doctors and nurses to take them to work.
Shoppers have jammed aisles and emptied stores of milk, bread, shovels, driveway salt and other supplies. Many scrambling for food and supplies were too late.
"Our shelves are bare," said Food Lion front-end manager Darlene Baboo in Dover. "This is just unreal."
Metro, the Washington-area transit system, closed all but the underground rail service and suspended buses in area that heavily relies on both.
Across the region, transportation officials deployed thousands of trucks and crews and had hundreds of thousands of tons of salt at the ready. Several states exhausted or expected to exhaust their snow removal budgets.
Maryland budgeted about $60 million, and had already spent about $50 million, Gov. Martin O'Malley said. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has been in office less than a month, declared his second snow emergency, authorising state agencies to assist local governments. As of early today, some parts of Virginia had already seen more than 18 inches of snow.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was dealing with the snowstorm on her first full day on the job. She was sworn in on Thursday afternoon.
The snow comes less than two months after a Dec. 19 storm dumped more than 16 inches on Washington. Snowfalls of this magnitude - let alone two in one season - are rare in the area. According to the National Weather Service, Washington has gotten more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870.
The heaviest on record was 28 inches (71.1cm) in January 1922. The biggest snowfall for the Washington-Baltimore area is believed to have been in 1772, before official records were kept, when as much as 3 feet fell, which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson penned in their diaries.
AP