'It Was Just Shockingly Cold'

At Least 1 Dead; Officials Working to Protect Residents, the Homeless

A fierce blast of winter weather spread into the mid-Atlantic yesterday, bringing some of the coldest conditions to Washington in years and claiming the life of an elderly Silver Spring woman who wandered from her home and perished outdoors overnight.

The National Weather Service said today could be the coldest day in Washington since Jan. 10, 2004, when the mercury dipped to 8, which was the chilliest reading in the past decade. Such conditions can cause frostbite and hypothermia, forecasters said.

As pipes burst in homes and furnaces faltered in some District schools, homeless shelters extended their hours and officials across the region scoured the streets to try to make sure no one else froze to death.

Temperatures hovered in the teens much of yesterday and were forecast to plunge to around five degrees early today as 20-mph gusts made venturing outside dangerous.

By 11 p.m. yesterday, the mercury had dipped to 10 degrees in Frederick and Manassas and to 12 degrees at Dulles International Airport and in Leesburg and Winchester, Va. Winds ranged from 8 to 15 mph with fewer gusts.

In its 9:25 p.m. forecast, the Weather Service said it expected temperatures to plunge to about 5 degrees in the area early today, with windchill factors as low as 5 degrees below zero.

Officials in Culpeper County, Va., said schools would open two hours late this morning because of predicted low temperatures.

"It was just shockingly cold," said Marcie Roth, who distributed leaflets in Rockville yesterday in single-digit windchills. "I had hand warmers, and the hand warmers were not warming the tips of my fingers."

Gale warnings were in effect on the coast, from Maine to Virginia, as wind whipped up waves and freezing spray. The frigid temperatures and fierce winds -- which gripped the nation from Georgia to the Dakotas -- stung those who ventured out, drove birds to shelter in the lee of shrubs and rattled street signs and house shutters.

"This is the kind of cold that takes your breath away," said Kevin Brown, an Alexandria sheriff's deputy on lunch break about 2 p.m. "It just knocks the wind out of you."

Jeanne Taylor, who had joined Roth in Rockville yesterday, said: "I just ate a hot bowl of chili, and I am still cold."

In Old Town Alexandria, Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a nonprofit health and tax policy research organization, said she had been working in a cold office, shivering. A pipe had frozen, but she had work to do.