Montgomery County Public Schools will be closed Tuesday, officials announced Monday afternoon.

Also, all school and community activities in school buildings are canceled Tuesday. However, day care programs in county school buildings will remain open as scheduled, officials said.

County officials, meanwhile, lifted a snow emergency declaration at 2 p.m. Monday. During a snow emergency, vehicles parked on designated snow emergency routes can be towed.

The bureaucratic actions aside, the county continued to recover from the weekend's 20-plus-inch snowstorm. Plows were operating to clear residential streets Monday morning and traffic was moving smoothly on the main thoroughfares, officials said.

Despite the still-wintry conditions on many roads Monday, "Our calls appear to be lighter than normal," Baur said. "So far we've had a pretty quiet morning. "The county has done an excellent job plowing roadways. Residential areas that have not been plowed, rest assured the plows are making their way there."

Ride On buses returned to a normal schedule Monday, and Metro subway and rail also returned to normal service after being closed due to icy tracks and roads.

All told, 24 inches of snow were recorded in Bethesda, and Rockville measured 21 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

For more information on roads or to raise concerns about road conditions, call the County Department of Transportation at 240-777-6000.

Meanwhile, county buildings such as libraries and recreation centers opened Monday after being closed during the weekend due to the weather conditions.

Trash and recycling collection continued Monday, but scheduled yard trim collections were canceled.

"It's going as well as can be expected," said Robin Ennis, chief of collections for the Division of Solid Waste Services. "We're trying to stay behind the snowplows so we can provide service. The only trouble is some townhouse communities which are privately plowed."

Across the county, some merchants worked to restock shelves depleted by last week's rush of shoppers looking to load up in advance of the storm, while others grumbled about the loss of revenue from customers not venturing out.

At Strosniders Hardware Store in Potomac Village, customers were in full "panic mode" Friday before the storm, reported general manager Pete McCloskey. Although the store had stocked up on weather-related supplies, it sold out of shovels and salt by 4 or 5 p.m., McCloskey said.

About 1,400 customers came through the door Friday, nearly three times the usual number. The Potomac Place shopping center parking lot was packed with shoppers buying last-minute storm supplies, McCloskey said.

"Just to leave the parking lot at 5:30, it took me 15 minutes to get out of my space and get to the street because of the gridlock," he said. "Cars were not moving, that's how much panic was going on."

In order to restock, McCloskey and two other employees unloaded a truck full of supplies during the storm around 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning. "It was interesting because the parking lot had not been plowed, and forklifts don't have a lot of traction in the snow," he said. "It took us more than an hour to unload the truck because of the weather conditions."

By Sunday, the store had sold out of shovels again, McCloskey said.

While stores selling snow shovels may have thrived, many small businesses lost revenue on what was is supposed to be the busiest shopping weekend of the year.

Eddie Velasquez, owner of DeJaBel Cafe on University Boulevard, shut his coffee shop for the weekend, frustrated that he couldn't boost low sales.

Down the street in the Wheaton Triangle, Marchone's Italian Deli owner Filippo Leo opened his sub shop both days, only to find no customers Saturday and just a trickle Sunday.

"Saturday was a very rough, rough day," he said. Leo reported mostly clear parking lots and navigable roads in downtown Wheaton, but many sidewalks were icy, he said. For now, it's up to business owners to shovel out a safe path to their stores, he said.

In Kensington, residents praised the quick work of the three-man town snow removal crew, which worked 23 hours straight to keep the roads clear, according to Mayor Peter Fosselman.

"They did a phenomenal job, they were up two nights in a row," Fosselman said. "They went through each of the roads at least four times through the entire storm" making sure at least one lane was clear.

"There's been a lot of people calling and e-mailing me saying they did a nice job," Fosselman said.

Detta Voesar, who lives on Kensington Parkway, said the "trucks appeared promptly" in her area, and by Sunday she was out and about.

"I've got a little dog that gets walked regularly, and I was able to walk her on Kensington Parkway without being concerned about slipping and sliding," Voesar said.

Rockville Mayor Phyllis R. Marcuccio and Councilwoman Bridget D. Newton traveled the slick streets of the city, reassuring residents that public works crews were doing everything they could to dig out residents.

"I had my Blackberry on me, so every time a message came into the city from someone about snow removal, we showed up at their door," Marcuccio said. The reaction — surprise — was universal, she said.

Meanwhile, the Wheaton Clean and Safe Team, charged with public safety in the downtown area, shoveled out Wheaton all weekend, even sleeping in the Mid-County Regional Services Center at night.

Three snowplows arrived in Chevy Chase Village Friday evening and didn't leave until Sunday morning, according to Village Manager Shana Davis-Cook. After the state cleared Connecticut Avenue, which runs through the village, local officials had the sidewalks and entrances to side streets along Connecticut Avenue cleared, because the state plows banked large amounts of snow onto the sides of the road.

"It would really be almost impossible for those adjacent homeowners," Davis-Cook said.

Village residents also are required to clear sidewalks in front of or abutting their homes within 48 hours of the end of a winter storm, although Davis-Cook said the policy was not being strictly enforced. Even so, a majority of the sidewalks had been cleared by late Monday morning, she said.

Still, several streets remained unplowed.

Connecticut Avenue Estates resident Susan Rich watched many a driver get stuck on her icy, hilly road just north of Wheaton.

"They haven't plowed, but people have packed the snow down to some extent," Rich said Monday.

Entreprenurial neighborhood children knocked on doors offering to shovel snow for a fee, which was a welcome respite for snow-weary adults.

"Six inches, maybe I'll shovel myself," Rich said.

And just north in the neighborhood of Glenmont, civic association president Kris Kumaroo offered his four-wheel-drive truck to anyone needing help.

"My truck cuts through this like a hot knife through butter," he wrote in an e-mail to his neighborhood.

So far, no emergencies have been called in from the midcounty area, but phone lines "are a little bit over-taxed this morning," said Mid-County Regional Services Center director Natalie Cantor, who was keeping her fingers crossed that all was well.

Plenty to do

The heavy snow also caused other problems for residents.

The Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad was kept "incredibly busy" by a series of minor car collisions from about 9:30 p.m. Friday to midnight in the Bethesda area, because the snow may have begun falling earlier than people expected, Rescue Squad Chief Ned Sherburne said Monday morning.

Even though the number of calls to the Rescue Squad was lower than usual over the weekend because most people stayed indoors, Sherburne said the squad was kept busy because each emergency call required more manpower, often a county snowplow and two rescue squads.

People who might otherwise drive to a hospital for sickness or injury find it extremely difficult once there is more than 18 inches of snow, Sherburne said.

"Every call you run becomes a major manpower commitment," he said.

The Rockville Volunteer Fire Department took no chances when it came to preparing for the heavy snowfall, adding additional staff to make sure there were plenty of personnel to handle emergencies caused by the slippery weather conditions.

Volunteer firefighter Lt. Adam Stern said the department normally has a staff of 20 to 25 firefighters on weekends, but 40 — six paid and the remainder volunteers — were on hand Friday night through Sunday because of the storm.

"We had more volunteers than we knew what to do with," he joked, adding that some firefighters served shifts lasting 60 hours.

Stern said it seemed like the majority of calls the department received were related to vehicle collisions and crashes.

"Numerous accidents on [Interstate 270] was one of the biggest problems," he said. "People were just driving too fast and not taking into account the conditions on the roads."

Elsewhere, four-wheel drive vehicles were needed to get hospital staff to and from work. While it was quiet during the storm at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, people in the community were called upon to help get staff to the hospital Saturday, said spokeswoman Ronna Borenstein.

"More than 100 staff members stayed overnight Saturday into Sunday to be sure we would have adequate staff to take care of our patients," she said.

Staff writers Erin Donaghue, Jen Beasley, Amber Parcher, Peggy McEwan, Andrew Ujifusa, Melissa J. Brachfeld and Nathan Carrick contributed to this report.