Across Area, a Gusty Wintry Wallop

The storm moved north from the Washington area, blasting Philadelphia and New York with sleet and ice and parts of New England with heavy snow.

Things could have been worse, weather forecasters said.

The regionwide ice storm meteorologists had feared was contained mostly east of the District, with the city and areas to the west mainly getting sleet and snow, the National Weather Service said.

"If it hadn't been sleet, you wouldn't have made it to work," said senior meteorologist Tom Kine of AccuWeather. "Had it been [all] snow, you would have had over a foot."

East of the city, the weather service said, a thicker layer of warm air allowed the storm's precipitation to fall as freezing rain, which iced trees and branches that took down power lines. Some areas got between a quarter-inch and a half-inch of ice, officials said.

Falling trees took out supply lines to three Pepco substations, accounting for the power outages in Prince George's, said Bob Dobkin, a Pepco spokesman.

Streets were littered with limbs, and people fled darkened, chilly homes in search of hot beverages and warm lodgings.

Thousands of air travelers faced delays and cancellations as airports and airlines battled to recover from the storm. Reagan National and Dulles International airports were closed for much of the morning as crews removed snow and ice from runways, officials said.

National opened its main runway at 10:40 a.m. The first runway at Dulles opened at 12:40 p.m., forcing carriers to cancel scores of flights into the late afternoon, officials said.

Airlines were expected to resume normal operations this morning, but they urged customers to call customer service lines or check the carriers' Web sites.

The treacherous road conditions had direct consequences for about 60 Metrobuses that got stuck in the early morning on unplowed streets in the city and suburbs.

Farbstein, the Metro spokeswoman, said the combination of ice and snow made it especially difficult for the buses to get traction. In most cases, Metrobus supervisors were able to dislodge the buses with sand and shovels before 9 a.m. By midafternoon, about 75 percent of the neighborhoods were cleared enough for bus routes to operate normally, Farbstein said.