Millions of people shivered without electricity Thursday in the Carolinas as one of the worst ice- and snowstorms in years snapped tree limbs, snarled air travel throughout the country and kept children home from school in a large part of the East.

At least 22 deaths have been blamed on the storm since it blew across the southern Plains earlier in the week, including a Virginia woman who police said froze to death after her car slid off the road and got stuck in a driveway. Up to a foot of snow fell in places from New Mexico to North Carolina.

“It’s horrible out there,” said Errol Carter, a lawyer from Edison, N.J. “I live less than 10 minutes from the train station, and I almost got in two accidents on the way there.”

“We’ve got wrecks everywhere,” Virginia State Police Sgt. D.A. Shaver said.

Schools closed in parts of the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.

The Carolinas were the hardest hit as the weight of ice and snow snapped tree limbs and sent them crashing onto power lines. In Raleigh, N.C., the crack of buckling pines and oaks sounded like gunfire during hunting season.

Matt and Dawn Heric had been without heat in Durham, N.C., since the electricity went off late Wednesday. “Unfortunately, none of the fireplaces are serviceable,” Matt Heric said of their 90-year-old house.

“You just go to the YMCA to take your showers and farm out the kids and just do what you have to do,” said Jill Brehm in Charlotte, N.C.

A storm that left up to a foot of snow in places from New Mexico to North Carolina has a lot of people shoveling their way out. Lee Pratt, 16, was one who shoveled Thursday, although the cold didn't seem to bother him too much. Pratt sported shorts as he cleared his driveway in Chillicothe, Ohio.

The storm was “probably the largest single-event power outage we’ve had in this state,” said Bryan Beaty, secretary of the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency and waived most weight limits for trucks removing debris and repairing utility lines. South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges also declared a state of emergency.

Outages also hit parts of Virginia and West Virginia. It was the second day without power in parts of Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma.

The storm’s effects on air travel spread far afield. Northwest Airlines canceled 14 flights to the East Coast from Minneapolis.

On the ground, highway traffic slowed to a crawl or stalled behind wrecks. Commuter buses ran behind schedule. And commuter railroads in the New York City region added trains to cope with an increase in riders.

Up to 8 inches fell in the mountains of western Virginia.

Deaths blamed on the storm included six in Kentucky, one in Tennessee, four in North Carolina, four in Missouri, two in Arkansas, two in South Carolina, two in Virginia and one in New York.