Winter’s Grip Tightens Along East Coast : Weather: Washington grinds to a virtual halt. Emergencies are declared in D.C., New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The death toll climbs to 130.

The nation’s capital came to a virtual halt Thursday as the East Coast remained in the grip of frigid temperatures and snow and ice storms that so far have been blamed for 130 deaths.

States of emergency were declared in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, and winter freezes hurt some areas in the South.

Forecasters said temperatures should rise in the next few days and be above freezing by the weekend or early next week.

Meanwhile, the death toll has been climbing daily.

Many have died in accidents on ice-slick roads. Some have suffered heart attacks while shoveling snow. A few have been killed by their efforts to keep warm, such as a North Carolina man who died in a fire that began when he tried to thaw his water pipes with a blowtorch.

The victims include a Minnesota woman who fell when she went outside to feed birds, a Pittsburgh woman who collapsed while getting the mail; and a New York motorist, caught in a snowstorm, who knocked at a house for help and was turned away.

In Washington, all except essential federal workers were told to stay home Thursday. Even President Clinton canceled scheduled events, choosing to stay warm in the White House. He did keep an appointment to appear on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” but asked for the interview to be conducted in his residential quarters instead of the studio.

The impact of the government shutdown was felt in Los Angeles, where top federal officials providing earthquake relief found their efforts hampered.

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“It’s complicating this, but not stopping us,” said Phil Cogan, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A repeat of Wednesday’s rolling electrical blackouts was avoided as manufacturing plants obeyed local government orders and closed from New Jersey to North Carolina.

Businesses that had deals with power companies under which they get cheaper rates in exchange for being the first to lose power during an emergency found it was time to “pay the piper,” one engineer at a Philadelphia-area manufacturing plant said.

Days of freezing temperatures burst pipes in homes, hotels and other facilities throughout the region.

One hospital in a working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia had to transfer its 125 patients to neighboring hospitals during the pre-dawn hours Thursday. A pipe burst in the middle of the night, flooding the basement of the Parkview Hospital where the transformer and generators were located.

“Our main power source for the hospital went out,” spokesman Ed Leszczynski said. “We did not have heat, electricity or telephones.”

New York City temperatures hovered about 13 degrees Thursday. On Wednesday, temperatures in New York hit a low of minus 2 degrees, breaking a 119-year record in the city.

It was 3 degrees above zero in Chicago, but schools, businesses and commodities markets were open.

Pennsylvania officials ordered state offices closed and urged businesses to open late or stay closed.

In Atlanta, residents were asked to skip baths and showers after some water pipes froze and burst.

Kentucky was crippled by a snowstorm that hit earlier this week. All schools were closed, more than 1,000 National Guard troops were on duty to provide emergency services and most interstate highways were still closed.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported no major air travel problems except at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where icy runways delayed flights.

Amtrak said some passenger trains were delayed or canceled in the East and Midwest.

In Washington, Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly threatened to fine any nonessential businesses up to $1,000 if they defied her order to close.

Most businesses complied. One liquor store that stayed open was fined $1,000, according to Zachary D. Smith, a spokesman for the city’s Office of Emergency Preparedness.

The order marked the first of its kind since the 1968 riots after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Staff members at Washington area homeless shelters said that some people who normally opt to stay on the streets were taking refuge. “We had to open up our basement to handle the overflow,” said Willis Partington, who works at the Community for Creative Nonviolence.

The shelter normally has a capacity of more than 1,400 and added beds for another 50. Throughout the day Thursday, staff members were riding around the street in a van searching for homeless people and trying to encourage them to come in out of the cold.

The approximately 362,000 nonessential federal government workers who were asked to stay home Thursday were expected to report to work at 10 a.m. today. Congress planned to open at the same time.

Telephones at federal agencies and other offices went unanswered for the most part. The State Department canceled all briefings, including an invitation-only affair with Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno moved a news conference to the Willard Hotel because the Justice Department building was closed.

Some government officials found out how easy it is to work from home. Dr. David A. Kessler, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, ran the agency from his suburban Maryland house with two telephones, a fax machine, a photocopying machine and two computers.

“There’s very little in this electronic age you can’t get done from home,” he said.

Area residents who hail from colder climates were skeptical about the need for such drastic measures and scoffed at Washingtonians for overreacting. But city officials defended the decision.

“We certainly have an obligation to act responsibly and decisively to protect the public safety interests of the D.C. residents,” Smith said. Utility officials stressed that there was a chance of a catastrophic loss of power unless such measures were taken, he added.

Schools in the District of Columbia and suburban Virginia and Maryland areas were closed for a fourth day, and were likely to remain closed today.

Times staff writer Ray Delgado contributed to this story.