RICHMOND -- The U.S. mid-Atlantic region struggled to recover from Hurricane Isabel on Sunday as nearly 2 million households from North Carolina to Delaware remained without power.

"That's what's creating most of the problem for the people -- the lack of power," said Bruce Price, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's operations center.

Price said the storm had killed at least 28 people throughout the region, mostly from traffic-related accidents. Also among the fatalities were two utility workers trying to restore power in Bowie and Pikesville, Maryland, according to Pauline Sowa, a spokeswoman for Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.

More than two days after Isabel ripped through the region, crews were still at work mending damaged power lines while many residents lined up for dry ice and others were forced to boil drinking water around powerless water treatment plants, Reuters reported.

President George W. Bush will visit an emergency operations center in Richmond, Virginia for an update on the impact of the hurricane, the White House said.

As of Sunday morning about 900,000 customers in Virginia, 750,000 in Maryland, 130,000 in North Carolina, 70,000 in Washington, D.C., and 60,000 in Delaware were still without power, emergency officials said.

In all, more than 10 million customers lost power at some points during the storm, and it is not expected to be fully restored until the end of the week, Price said.

U.S. government offices in the Washington area were scheduled to reopen on Monday after being closed for two days last week when the storm hit.

The center of the storm made landfall on North Carolina's Outer Banks on Thursday afternoon, then charged to the northwest through central Virginia.

About 7,700 people remained in emergency shelters in the region, down from a peak of 30,000, Price said, and some areas along the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay were still flooded.

In Surry County, Virginia, near Williamsburg, residents reported 150 homes destroyed. Statewide, about 2,500 homes have sustained major damage, according to Bob Spieldenner, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

In New Alexandria, a small community on the Potomac near its larger namesake Alexandria, Logan Leathers said water rose in his house up to his chest within 20 minutes. "I was saving furniture. Then I was trying to save myself," he said. "It was so bad, we actually climbed out on our roof into a boat to get out of here."

In North Carolina's Hatteras Village, a sport-fishing center, motels and other buildings were knocked off their foundations. Some were deposited on other buildings, while others were left in streets or atop the island's single highway. "This village will never be the same," said resident and retired Dare County sheriff Bert Austin. "I was here for the great hurricanes of 1933 and '44, and other ones since then, but they did not cause the damage this one did."