Across Area, a Gusty Wintry Wallop

Virginia, which had declared a statewide emergency in anticipation of the storm, suffered relatively moderate power outages and highway problems. The main roads in Northern Virginia were cleared early, and sunshine by early afternoon kept incidents to a minimum, police said.

In the Burke area, a 45-year-old man fell through the ice on Lake Braddock when he tried to rescue his dog, which had fallen in, Fairfax fire spokeswoman Renee Stilwell said. But man and dog were rescued by friends, and both were back on land when rescuers arrived.

In Prince George's, Anne Arundel and Charles counties, where ice formed, nearly 120,000 customers lost power yesterday. In Anne Arundel, outages were so extensive that County Executive John R. Leopold (R) activated the emergency center at 1 p.m. Earlier in the day, when more than 115,000 customers in Maryland were without power, emergency shelters started opening in the hardest-hit counties, and many residents were scrambling to find hotel rooms.

As of 5 p.m. yesterday, about 64,000 customers in Anne Arundel and nearly 40,000 in Prince George's were without power. By 10:30 p.m., the number of outages in Anne Arundel had dropped to about 54,000 and about 23,000 in Prince George's, according to BGE and Pepco.

"The latest reports are it could be at least two or three days in some instances" until power is restored to some houses and businesses, Leopold said.

Mike Maxwell, vice president for emergency preparedness at Pepco, said the utility expected to have power restored to most customers by late yesterday, but some wouldn't have it back until today.

Hotels in Prince George's quickly filled with residents fleeing powerless homes. At the Comfort Inn in Bowie, all 240 rooms were booked by 4 p.m., but the phone kept ringing. "You hear these phones?" asked front desk operator Donna Lions. "They just keep going. I want to scream."

By 5 p.m., a half-dozen Anne Arundel residents had checked into an emergency center at Annapolis High School. Warming stations were set up at seven Prince George's firehouses. Charles opened an overnight shelter at Thomas Stone High School in Waldorf.

Sara King, a 54-year-old Edgewater resident, moved into the Annapolis High shelter yesterday afternoon with her 84-year-old mother. "I told her when the house got to 60 degrees we would leave. I didn't want her to get a chill," she said.

The storm was the first weather challenge for the District's new mayor, Adrian M. Fenty (D).

Some in the city said he had done a good job having the streets cleared. Others said he hadn't.

Arthur Peterson, 36, a porter from the Trinidad section, said his neighborhood was plowed. "They did a good job," he said. "It took them time to get there, but, yeah, they did."

Sheila Iverson, a lawyer from Mount Rainier, was unimpressed with the snow removal as she prepared to negotiate a deep slush puddle at 15th and L streets NW.

"Look at these corners," she said, indicating the slush. "I'm having a hard time. I didn't wear my Timberlands. . . . It's a major thoroughfare. . . . They should have hit this area first. . . . Mayor Fenty should have known better. . . . They knew it was coming."

At a news briefing yesterday, Fenty said that city crews would work until the streets were cleared to residents' satisfaction and asked his acting director of the Department of Transportation, Emeka Moneme, to focus on residential streets yesterday afternoon.

"Our job is to make sure the streets are safe and passable, and I think we've achieved that quite well," Moneme said.