A man walks by the White House in Washington, D.C., early Wednesday morning. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

A second major snowstorm in a week swept up the U.S. East Coast on Wednesday, dumping historic snowfalls that shut down U.S. government offices and the United Nations in New York and paralyzed airports.

The storm dumped more than 25 centimetres of snow on parts of the Washington area that already had been hit with about a metre of snow in a blizzard over the weekend. Nearby Baltimore reported record snowfall.

'It's a mess here, it really is.' — Susan Bonner, CBC News reporter

The wind started blowing in gusts from 40 km/h to 70 km/h in and around snowbound Washington. Driving conditions got so bad that officials in Washington and some nearby suburbs pulled plows off the roads.

A winter storm warning is in effect until 7 p.m. ET for Washington, where Congress, businesses and schools remain shut for a third day in a row.

Chris Strader, left, and Rob Larson unload a shipment of snow shovels at Frager's Hardware in Washington on Wednesday. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)

Downtown Washington, normally busy with bureaucrats, once again resembled a ghost town as 230,000 federal workers stayed home. Closing federal agencies is estimated to cost the government $100 million US per day in lost productivity and other costs.

Airports and schools in Washington were closed, and thousands of people were without electricity.

"Washington is just not prepared for this," said CBC reporter Susan Bonner, broadcasting via webcam from her home in Washington because she was unable to make it to the downtown bureau.

Bonner said many more thousands are expected to lose power in coming days as heavy snow brings down power lines.

"It's a mess here, it really is," said Bonner.

Storm spreads through northeast

New York, which managed to avoid last week's blizzard, was not so lucky Wednesday. Flakes were coming down fast during the morning commute, and the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings and predicted 25 to 40 centimetres of snowfall.

Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights at New York-area airports, and the city school system's 1.1 million students enjoyed a snow day — only the third in six years.

Snow was falling from northern Virginia to Connecticut by early Wednesday after leaving the Midwest, where the storm cancelled hundreds of flights and was blamed for three traffic deaths in Michigan.

With files from The Associated Press