BALTIMORE -- A storm that battered the state with more than two feet of snow may have claimed up to seven lives throughout the state.
Authorities said three men died of heart attacks while shoveling snow: a 42-year-old New Market man, a 60-year-old Severn man and a 64-year-old Odenton man.
A 4-year-old child died in Montgomery County when the child was left in a running car while the parents shoveled snow around it. The child died Monday night of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning, WJLA-TV reported.
In addition, a 55-year-old man was found dead in a car in the 4100 block of Forest Park Avenue in Baltimore. It's unclear if the death was related to the storm, Baltimore City police said.
Baltimore City police said two children, ages 11 and 12, died inside a snow-covered car. A third child, 11, survived but was hospitalized Monday night.
A woman whose name wasn't released by police said she gave the children her keys Monday afternoon to retrieve spare change for her. The woman, the mother of the 11-year-old child who died, told police that 15 minutes later, she checked on the youngsters and found them sitting in the car with the engine off.
She then went to work and called family members to check on the children. When she got home, she called police, who found the children still in the car. Two were unresponsive, but one was able to open the door, said police spokesman Troy Harris.
The boy told police he and his friends turned the car on and were listening to CDs when they fell asleep.
"The next thing he remembers is the officer banging on the car," Harris said.
The deaths were part of the worst storm to hit Maryland in 81 years. The snow collapsed roofs, snarled roads and stranded hundreds of travelers.
Valerie Edgar, a spokeswoman for the Maryland State Highway Administration, said officials hoped to have the most important roads clear for rush hour Tuesday morning. Two lanes were cleared on Interstate 95 Tuesday morning with medium traffic flow, but most secondary roads were still snow-covered.
"This is going to be days worth of clean up," said State Highway Administration spokesman David Buck.
About 1,800 highway administration vehicles worked to clear and salt roads and highways Monday, with 300 more vehicles expected Tuesday morning, said highway spokeswoman Sandra Dobson. She said crews had cleared down to the concrete on some roads, and their goal was to have all primary roads fully passable by rush hour Tuesday morning.
The worst part of the storm system hit Keysers Ridge, a town of 2,740 feet in Garrett County with a total accumulation of 49 inches of snow, state highway officials said.
"It's no man's land out there," said Paul McIntyre, state highway supervisor for Garrett County. "It looks more like Siberia than Maryland. It's hard to describe. You almost have to see it to believe it."
The storm was part of a huge system that left its mark in a variety of ways: blizzard conditions in the Northeast; rain, mudslides and floods in the South; and heavy snowfall across the eastern United States.
Up to 4 inches an hour fell during the thickest part of Sunday's storm, Buck said. Baltimore-Washington International Airport preliminarily reported about 26 inches of snow for the storm, the second highest amount recorded in the Baltimore area, said Steve Zubrick, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Silver Spring had 25 inches of snow.
The National Weather Service predicted most of the snow would move out of Maryland by Tuesday, with highs reaching 45 degrees by Wednesday in the Baltimore area. But on Tuesday morning, flurries continue to fall.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich lifted a driving ban he'd issued Sunday, but a state of emergency was still in place Monday.
Ehrlich said the storm had cost the state between $20 million and $30 million. He said the State Highway Administration was already $14 million over budget, even before this storm.
"It's an expensive storm, but we're going to worry about that later," Ehrlich said. "As governor, you focus on the public safety side of things."
After closing Monday, Baltimore-Washington International Airport cleared a runway Tuesday morning and by 9 a.m. had allowed three flights to depart, said airport spokeswoman Harriet Sagel-Falk.
She said BWI officials hoped to allow in arriving flights by Tuesday afternoon. The airport usually handles 700 arriving and departing flights daily.
Sally Dick, a retiree from Green Valley, Ariz., was trying to return home after visiting her mother in a Pikesville hospital. She arrived at BWI Sunday morning and slept overnight on a bench in an observation lounge.
Dick said she didn't leave the airport because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to get back. "That's why I spent the night here. I thought, 'What if I can't get back again?"'
Maj. Greg Shipley, a Maryland state police spokesman, said his troopers patrolled the state in four-wheel drive vehicles and more than 50 National Guard Humvees. State police responded to 1,330 calls for service during the storm, including 173 accidents and 764 motorists with disabled vehicles, Shipley said.
Ehrlich's declaration of a statewide emergency activated the National Guard to help local governments maintain safety, security and other services threatened by the storm. Maryland was still in a state of emergency on Tuesday.
The American Red Cross closed its Baltimore-area donation centers because of the snow. With the blood supply dwindling, officials urged donors to schedule an appointment to give blood.
Hospitals and nursing homes across the state asked for help getting doctors and nurses to work Monday.
Heavy snow was also blamed for roof collapses across the state, including the B & O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. No injuries were reported.
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