‘It Looks More Like Siberia’ Than East Coast

A quiet beauty reigned in the nation’s capital Tuesday as federal workers stayed home, recovering from a snowstorm that meteorologists said left more than 2 feet in some Washington suburbs and tons of snow across the Northeast.

Snow covered the monuments and shuttered the Smithsonian Institution. Major roads and sidewalks in downtown Washington had been cleared down to the pavement, thanks to a herculean effort by overnight road crews who left 4-foot piles standing like huge snow cones in the gutters. The Metro subway system slowed to waits of 30 minutes or longer for a train, instead of the usual five minutes or so.

By Tuesday, area airports had reopened, though some runways remained closed. Airplanes were beginning to fly again, but barely. “It’s surreal,” Dawn Shuford, 35, said as she reclined against her suitcase in a dark hallway at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Since Sunday morning, she had tried to get home to Seattle. “I’m usually at home reading about this happening to somebody else.”

The disruptions to air travel remained widespread. Flights from Florida to such points as Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Hartford, Conn., were filled as airlines tried to handle the crush of passengers who had been stranded at airports throughout Florida and as far away as California when the storm was at its peak on Monday.

Philadelphia International Airport resumed operations Tuesday but still expected to cancel about one-third of its flights. Flights slowly resumed at New York’s LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark airports. Boston’s Logan Airport, where more than 2 feet of snow fell, had one runway open.

The storm slowly churned across New England on Tuesday. Dozens of flights were affected in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and some schools were closed. The storm set a record in Boston, where 27.5 inches of snow were the most since city snow records began in 1892, forecasters said.

In the District of Columbia’s suburbs, workers with an extra day off beyond the scheduled Presidents Day holiday marveled at cars buried under mounds of snow. Schools were closed, side streets defied attempts to walk or drive. Frederick, Md., was so hard-hit that the roof of a bakery fell in.

“The snow didn’t come in a day and it won’t be gone in a day,” Frederick Mayor Jennifer P. Dougherty said stoically.

Even looming war in Iraq seemed remote. Priority belonged to snow: digging out: school-less children; cabin fever; hurried runs to the store -- not for duct tape, plastic sheeting and other anti-terrorism supplies -- but for food and toilet paper.

Cleanup costs are expected to dent local budgets. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner estimated the extra cost at $20 million for his state. Business owners were disappointed at the loss of income from Presidents Day sales, as most were forced to close their doors, with neither staff nor customers.

The magnitude of the storm was told in a tale of the tape at area airports. Dulles: 24.2 inches. Baltimore-Washington International: 26 inches. Reagan National: 16 inches.

“It’s no man’s land out there,” said Paul McIntyre, state highway supervisor for Maryland’s mountainous Garrett County, where up to 49 inches of snow fell. “It looks more like Siberia than Maryland.”

As neither snow nor dogs can deter their employees, the U.S. Postal Service announced it would deliver the mail. But officials did ask residents to shovel snow away from their mailboxes, for easier delivery.

The Washington area was not alone in welcoming the diversion from war and terrorism.

“It’s great,” said John Gosal, a Canadian diplomat at the United Nations. “Instead of worrying about Iraq, it’s nice to have a snow day.”

*

Times wire services contributed to this report.