The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Washington, D.C., beginning at noon/1700 GMT on Tuesday and continuing into Wednesday, with projected snow totals of 10 to 20 inches (25 to 51 cm).
The potentially crippling new storm was expected to hit other big cities along the East Coast, like Baltimore and Philadelphia, that are still digging out and extend into New Jersey and New York. It would only add to the 32 inches (81 cm) of snow that had fallen in suburban Washington in the biggest snowfall to hit the city in decades.
The federal government was closed on Monday, though President Barack Obama still held meetings at the White House. Schools and most businesses in the region remained shut.
As officials worked to clear snow-covered streets from the Washington area, residents braced for another storm expected to dump much more snow than initially forecast. Local officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, said the next storm could cause some roofs to collapse from the weight of all the snow and there could be more power outages.
In the county, about 80,000 people lost power on Saturday, and some customers still had no electricity or heat on Monday. Many schools said classes would be canceled through Tuesday, even before the latest storm warning.
