Wednesday's blizzard affected tens of millions of people and has turned the 2009-2010 winter into the snowiest ever on record for Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia, snapping air and rail links across much of the region and leaving roads too dangerous to navigate.

More than 8,000 homes in Maryland and Virginia remained without power and the federal government was shut down Thursday for the fourth day in a row -- at a cost of an estimated 100 million dollars a day in lost productivity.

Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed at regional airports, while strong winds and black ice made driving especially perilous.

With snow drifts several feet deep in many parts of the state, heavy lifting equipment and bulldozers were being brought into Maryland to remove the snow as plows were unable to cope.

As exhausted residents longed for some respite after being walloped by a major weekend storm compounded by Wednesday's blizzard, forecasters warned of bad weather ahead that could dump more snow on the area Monday.

"Obviously, it's had a huge impact on our community," DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman Pete Piringer told AFP. "We've been extremely busy, but the sun's out, people are out and about moving around."

The fire department has doubled up its shifts and handled about 3,000 calls over the past five days -- more than twice the normal volume -- for everything from roof, porch and awning collapses to fires and even a couple of baby deliveries.

About 20 people spent a frigid night stranded inside their vehicles on a road near Frederick, Maryland, where the blizzard's high winds have whipped up six to eight feet (1.83 to 2.44 meters) of snowdrifts, police said.

But the wintery mess was not enough to faze the US military.

"All of our essential activities continue unabated," said Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan.

Although most of the Defense Department's civilian and military employees were working from home, Lapan said the National Military Command Center inside the Pentagon building was "fully operational."

Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty hailed the snow plowers' "real heroic work," noting the nation's capital has been blanketed with nearly four times more snow than the annual average of 15 inches.

The city's domestic Reagan airport has already logged 55.9 inches (1.4 meters) of snow in past weeks.

"There's always things that you could do better. Mayors should always prepare themselves to do better next time," Fenty told MSNBC television, as tempers among harried commuters began to fray over the snow-clogged streets.

The capital city has already spent six times its annual budget for snow removal.

Washington and the surrounding states of Maryland and Virginia have also requested help from the federal government to help cope with the impact.

Airports between Washington and New York reopened Thursday after nearly 6,000 flights were canceled at the height of the latest storm, stranding tens of thousands of passengers.

A USA Today survey of carriers estimated at least 5,700 flights were canceled on Wednesday alone, one of the biggest air travel disruptions since the September 11, 2001 attacks, which caused tens of thousands of flight cancellations for two days.

Washington's public transportation system was still only providing limited service, with above ground rail stations closed and patchy bus routes. The national rail system Amtrak was also curtailing its service in the region.

Schools in the Washington-Baltimore area were not expected to reopen until after Monday's President's Day holiday. But in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered children back to school on Thursday after a rare snow day.

Most people appeared to have heeded warnings to stay home, helping ensure a low number of fatalities.

A motorist was killed and another injured in a pileup in central Pennsylvania that closed a major interstate highway for hours on Wednesday.

Some 60 people were hospitalized with injuries in a 50-car pileup in Williamsburg, Virginia, and in New Jersey, two men were reported to have died -- one when a snow-laden branch toppled onto him, the other when a house awning collapsed.

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