East Coast digs out from mammoth snowstorm

In Washington, the federal government was closed for a fourth straight day. The nation’s capital joined Philadelphia and Baltimore in logging their snowiest winters in history.

Paul Kocin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Washington, said the storm was among the most disruptive ever because of its timing. He estimated 50 million people were affected.

“The big difference is that it occurred within a week and a half of three other storms,’’ Kocin said. “The combination of storms is almost unprecedented - the amount of snow, the amount of impact.’’

The latest storm dumped more than 19 inches in Baltimore, 10 inches in Washington, D.C., and 16 inches in Philadelphia. About 20 inches fell in central New Jersey, and totals ranged from 10 to 16 inches around New York City.

Rescue workers in western Maryland broke through 6- to 8-foot snowdrifts to reach motorists in more than two dozen vehicles stranded overnight on US 340. The highway became impassable after two tractor-trailers jackknifed and blocked the road.

Seamus Mooney, Frederick County director of emergency preparedness, said that by noon they were down to 12 vehicles with people still in them. Greg Shipley, Maryland State Police spokesman, said none of the stranded drivers appeared to be in physical distress and most chose to stay in their vehicles rather than go to a shelter.

Electric crews in New Jersey were working to restore power to more than 40,000 homes and businesses. About 70,000 utility customers in Pennsylvania were without power. Some never got it back after the last storm. More than 11,000 customers in Virginia were still in the dark.

The outages and hundreds of miles of unplowed roads have some mayors inundated with complaints.

“Right now I’m miserable. We still can’t get out,’’ said Carolyn Ward, who serves on a neighborhood commission in Washington. “If they had a plan, it wasn’t a good one.’’