WASHINGTON — Planes were grounded, trains stood still, and Greyhound buses weren’t rolling in the mid-Atlantic on Sunday, leaving stranded travelers wondering when they’ll be able to escape the icy, gray mess created by a major snowstorm.
Hundreds of thousands of homes were without power, with temperatures below freezing all day and utilities warning it could be days before it’s all restored. Plows had scraped down to bare pavement on some main thoroughfares while not touching streets in many areas buried by 2 feet or more.
In the nation’s capital, meanwhile, today will be another day for residents to keep digging out. The federal government made the decision to close agencies today, and many school districts across the region were giving students a snow day.
The National Weather Service called the storm “historic” and reported a foot of snow in parts of Ohio and 2 feet or more in Washington, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Parts of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia got closer to 3 feet.
Many roads reopened, but officials continued to warn residents that highways were still icy, a remnant from the storm that President Barack Obama called “Snowmageddon.”
A new storm watch was issued for Tuesday. The National Weather Service said the next storm had the “potential for more than 5 inches,” while other forecasts indicated that as much as a foot might fall.
In Philadelphia, 28.5 inches of snow fell during the storm, just shy of the record 30.7 inches during the January 1996 blizzard.
Snow totals were even higher to the west in Pennsylvania, with 31 inches recorded in Upper Strasburg and 30 inches in Somerset.
Almost 18 inches was recorded at Washington’s Reagan National Airport, which had canceled all flights. That’s the fourth-highest storm total for the city, and airport officials haven’t decided when flights would resume. At nearby Dulles International Airport in Virginia, the record was shattered with 32 inches. Some flights there have resumed.
In Mount Lebanon, a suburb south of Pittsburgh, Robb and Meredith Hartlage were again trying to clear their sidewalk.
“We did a couple hours yesterday. I would say about four hours mixed with sledding,” said Robb Hartlage, 40, who said he’s not too old to play in the snow. He acknowledged, however, that the shoveling was hard work.
“I made some ‘old man’ noises when I got out of bed,” he said.
In Colorado
