SLICK ROADS BLAMED FOR 3 DEATHS

HOMELESS SHELTERS FILLED TO CAPACITY

The Washington area had a chilly, white Thanksgiving yesterday after a snowstorm dumped four to six inches of snow on the region, stretching cot accommodations at District and suburban homeless shelters and contributing to traffic collisions that killed a Rockville man and two other persons.

Police in Northern Virginia and Maryland said main roads were passable but they cautioned motorists about possibly slick and hazardous conditions on secondary roads. Continued cleanup efforts were expected to improve travel on these secondary roads by this morning, authorities said.

District officials, who declared a snow emergency effective late Wednesday night, lifted the warning as of 5 a.m. yesterday. Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Public Works, said the sun "has done a lot of the work for us" in clearing city streets.

The temperature fell to 27 degrees early yesterday and never got above 35 degrees throughout the day, according to the National Weather Service. Today's forecast is for sunny and less chilly weather, with a high temperature of about 40 degrees and winds 10 to 15 miles per hour.

The normal temperature for this time of year is an average low of 38 degrees and a high of 55, according to the weather service. The record high was 75 degrees in 1979, and the record low was 12 degrees in 1880.

The region's first snowfall of the season arrived Wednesday night as travelers were leaving town for the Thanksgiving holiday.

About four inches of snow fell at National Airport and Baltimore, the weather service reported. Quantico, Va., and Waldorf, Md., each received about six inches of snow.

It was the first white Thanksgiving in the area since 1971, according to the National Weather Service, but not the earliest snowfall. A surprise, record-breaking snowstorm struck the region and much of the eastern seaboard on Veterans Day two years ago, dumping up to 16 inches of snow around the city.

Wednesday's storm was blamed for the traffic deaths of three people.

In Montgomery County, Kin Hong Lee, 50, of Rockville, was killed on Midcounty Highway in Gaithersburg when his southbound car slid across the road and was struck broadside by an oncoming vehicle. The accident occurred about 11 p.m. Wednesday and slightly injured four persons in two other vehicles, none of whom required hospitalization, police said.

Earlier Wednesday evening, a mother and daughter from Monroeville, Pa., were killed in an 8 p.m. collision in Fauquier County, near Warrenton. Police said Lucinda Fuerle, 44, and her 14-year-old daughter, Allison, were on Route 17 when the mother lost control of the car and skidded into the path of a van. Another daughter, Audrey Fuerle, 7, was listed in satisfactory condition at Fauquier Hospital, police said.

Despite the storm, Amtrak and Metro trains operated as scheduled. Metro's two-year-old heating system -- installed after snowstorms forced the trains to shut down in 1987 -- kept exposed subway rails from freezing, a Metro spokeswoman said.

The snowstorm exacerbated crowded conditions at area homeless shelters. Sue Marshall, the District government's coordinator for the homeless, said all 25 city-owned or operated shelters for single adults were filled to capacity Wednesday night. She said sleeping bags were brought in to some of the larger facilities.

At the Community for Creative Non-Violence, which operates a shelter at Second and D streets NW, a volunteer said the District has not opened enough facilities to handle the problem. CCNV's 1,400-bed shelter is full year-round, she said, forcing shelter operators to turn away some homeless people even in bad weather.

Despite the cold, CCNV served a Thanksgiving dinner to about 2,000 homeless people outside the U.S. Capitol. CCNV founder Mitch Snyder said the location was switched from Lafayette Square across the street from the White House to the Capitol because "it is now the responsibility of Congress to deal with the issue of the homeless."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.