Searchers looked for scores of young hikers in the snow-covered mountains of North Carolina, and travel was snarled across much of the East Monday in the aftermath of the deadly weekend blizzard. A freighter sank off Nova Scotia early Monday in high seas.
The storm was blamed in the deaths of at least 115 people from Canada to Cuba.East Coast airports were crowded with people trying to get away after being stranded through the weekend. Major highways were being reopened, but many travelers remained snowbound. Hundreds of thousands of customers had no electricity. Northeast commuters were urged to leave their cars at home because city streets were choked with ice.
"Getting to the train station was an event in itself," said suburban Philadelphia commuter Mark Cotterman, 32. "It was all packed down. There was hardly any traction at all."
The storm hit Florida with tornadoes on Friday and pushed up the coast with hurricane-force winds Saturday, wrecking seaside homes. As much as 4 feet of snow fell, and winds piled drifts 15 feet high.
"It looks like something out of `Dr. Zhivago,' " said Rooks Boynton of Clarkston, Ga. "Nothing's moving out there."
Temperatures fell to record lows for a second day Monday, including 11 at South Carolina's Greenville-Spartanburg airport and 2 at Worcester, Mass.
Rescuers used helicopters, plows, front-end loaders and four-wheel-drive vehicles to reach hikers, travelers and snowbound rural residents.
In Camp Greenville, S.C., about 100 teenagers and camp counselors trapped at a camp by the storm were carried to safety Sunday by National Guard helicopters.
One hundred hikers remained hunkered down in shelters and tents in the mountains of East Tennessee, where the rescue was suspended until Monday, and 56 suburban Detroit youngsters were missing in North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains.
Ray Carson, a spokesman for the Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., said 66 of the 122 students, teachers and other adults were safely out. He said the rest were unaccounted for. However, communications with the area were difficult and officials in North Carolina and Tennessee gave varying numbers.
John Garrison, supervisory ranger for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, said the group had apparently split into small groups of eight and were in different parts of the mountain.
"We have ground teams that have gone into high probability areas, and we have an extensive air search under way" using Army equipment out of Fort Campbell, Ky., he said.
Meanwhile, North Carolina officials were waiting for the Asheville airport to reopen to send in four helicopters. Tennessee authorities were trying to get their own helicopters to the area.
West Virginia authorities resumed a search Monday for six horseback riders from Ohio missing since Friday in the rugged Cranberry Glades wilderness area, said Andy Ridenour of the state Office of Emergency Services. The group included a a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old. The area got up to 44 inches of snow and drifts were up to 16 feet.
Rescuers searched the seas off Nova Scotia Monday morning for 33 British and Chinese crew members of a freighter that sank in the violent storm, officials said.
The 530-foot Gold Bond Conveyor, carrying gypsum ore from Halifax to Tampa, Fla., sank just after midnight when seas were more than 60 feet. The ship went down about 65 miles southeast of Cape Sable Island.
The Coast Guard Monday resumed its search for four people missing since a Honduran freighter capsized during the storm in the Gulf of Mexico off Fort Myers, Fla. Three others were rescued and three died.
It was the deadliest blizzard to strike the United States since one in January 1966 that killed 165 people.
Airports in Atlanta, Washington, New York, Boston and other cities reopened Sunday, but there weren't many flights, and air travel was backed up nationwide Monday. Thousands of travelers were stuck in airports and shelters.
At New Jersey's Newark Airport, travelers frustrated by delays jumped on ticket counters and shouted obscenities Sunday. Fistfights broke out. No immediate arrests were made.
"I'm spending all my vacation money in Newark, New Jersey," Linda Kyrzycki grumbled as she awaited a flight to the Florida Keys.
Schools were closed across a wide area Monday. Nearly 1 million electric utility customers had no power Sunday; many also lacked heat.
Interstate highways were being cleared, but many smaller roads remained impassable. In Alabama, where Birmingham got a record 13 inches of snow, highway official Mike Mahaffey said the state had no more than five snowplows.
I-65, the main north-south highway through Alabama, was reopened Monday but with only one lane in each direction. All 559 miles of the New York State Thruway reopened Monday after plows worked the weekend to battle snow drifts as high as 12 feet, according to spokesman David Ardman.
Several hundred motorists spent Saturday night in two highway tunnels along the Virginia-West Virginia line.
Storm-related deaths were reported in 17 states, with 26 in Florida, 19 in Pennsylvania, 16 in New York, eight in Tennessee and seven in Alabama.
At least 18 homes were swept out to sea on New York's Long Island. Four were near collapse on Nantucket in Massachusetts. About 200 homes along the North Carolina coast were damaged.