Surprise Storm Hits East Coast

An unexpected blizzard stunned the eastern United States on Tuesday, snarling traffic and shutting down schools and businesses from South Carolina to Maine. Most federal agencies in the nation’s capital were closed.

Packing winds up to 40 mph, the fast-moving storm disrupted air travel and closed many major airports, including New York’s La Guardia and Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport. Dozens of flights were canceled up and down the Eastern seaboard, and air traffic was snarled over much of the nation.

Amtrak, the nation’s passenger train service, canceled operations south of Washington, including auto-train service to Florida, because of the storm, said spokesman Cliff Black. Rail travelers faced delays along the Washington-to-Boston corridor, he said.

At least four people were killed in weather-related traffic accidents in the Carolinas, and a 5-year-old girl was missing and feared dead in Massachusetts after she fell into a river while walking to school in heavy snow.

Schools were closed from South Carolina to Maine, including nearly all schools in New Jersey and Maryland.

It was the worst snowstorm to hit Washington in four years, turning the downtown area into a ghost town. While the capital’s Metro subway system remained operating, some commuters on cross-country skis traversed nearly empty streets.

White House Plays Political Snowball

The only political battle at the White House was a snowball fight outside the West Wing between Press Secretary Joe Lockhart and his aides. Senate testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, usually a much-anticipated event, was canceled.

“We knew it was coming. It just decided to hit us a day earlier [than expected],” said U.S. Weather Service meteorologist Tim Morrin in New York. “It’s an intense winter storm and it’s hitting us with its full potential.”

“It’s a nor’easter with a capital N. Actually, you can capitalize all the letters with this storm,” said Jack Boston of AccuWeather, a private forecasting firm in State College, Pa.

Fourteen inches of snow had fallen by early afternoon at Petersburg, Va., and snow piled up in 4- to 5-foot drifts outside Richmond. A foot had fallen at Jaffrey, N.H. The Baltimore-Washington International Airport got more than 7 inches. Ten inches had accumulated outside Philadelphia at King of Prussia, and New York City measured 6 inches.

Up to 18 inches of snow were expected in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts.

The storm dumped a record 20.3 inches of snow at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The snowfall amount eclipsed a record 17.8 inches of snow set on March 2, 1927. Central and eastern North Carolina had 2 feet of snow. As the storm progressed in many areas, forecasters increased their predictions of how much snow would fall.

Snow was reported as far south as Myrtle Beach, a popular South Carolina resort community, where 5 inches fell on a community better known for well-groomed golf courses and wide beaches.

“It’s virtually a white-out,” said North Carolina State Highway Patrol spokesman Robert Carver. “Looking out at the cars, snow is up to the wheel wells, wind blowing snow around. This is the kind of thing you just don’t see in North Carolina.”

North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. and Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore declared states of emergency, mobilizing National Guard troops to provide emergency medical services, set up temporary power generators and help rescue stranded motorists.

Virginia hospitals appealed for volunteers with four-wheel-drive vehicles to take doctors and nurses to work. “We’re having a great response,” with about 50 volunteer drivers, said Mark Canada at Johnston-Willis Hospital north of Richmond.

LAX Feels Storm’s Effect

At Los Angeles International Airport, Debbi Rizvi arrived at 9 a.m. for a 10 a.m. flight that would take her home to Washington, D.C., and was greeted with “frustration, disorganization and confusion.”

Flashing lights on computer monitors listed flight after flight to the East Coast as canceled.

Rizvi--who had come to California for a weekend visit with friends in Orange County--bought two paperback books and a giant cup of coffee and lugged her bags from gate to gate, finally securing a spot on the waiting list for a red-eye flight home.

Around her, similarly stranded travelers curled themselves awkwardly into seats to catch some sleep. “It’s been a long day and it’s not even half over yet,” Rizvi said Tuesday. “And then I’ll have to go shovel my car out of the snow.”

Only “essential” government employees were asked to report to work in the nation’s capital, such as some law enforcement officers, public health technicians and air traffic controllers. The Supreme Court stayed open until midafternoon on orders of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a native of much snowier Wisconsin.

Legislatures in Delaware, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania closed for the day, and Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper delayed his State of the State address for the second time in a week because of snow.

The North Carolina utility CP&L; had 81,000 customers without power, and Duke Power Co. reported 87,000 without power in North Carolina and 50,000 in South Carolina. Virginia Power reported fewer than 1,000 customers without power.

Gale-force winds blowing in behind the storm made it difficult for crews to repair downed power lines , particularly in the Sandhills region northeast of Charlotte, officials said.

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Special correspondent Jessica Garrison contributed to this story from Los Angeles.