NEW YORK — The biggest winter storm in New York City history — destined for lionization as the Blizzard of '06 — buried the region and much of the Northeast on Sunday under blowing, drifting, thigh-high snows that crippled transportation and commerce, knocked out power and disrupted life for millions in 14 states.

The storm — a great crab nebula 1,200 miles long and 500 miles wide on satellite images — crawled up the Eastern Seaboard overnight with winds that gusted up to 60 miles an hour, and cloaked the cities and countrysides from North Carolina to coastal Maine with 12 to more than 27 inches of snow that broke or challenged records in many locales.

A total of 26.9 inches fell in Central Park, the most since record-keeping began in 1869, the National Weather Service reported.

Announcing itself at dawn over New York with theatrical claps of thunder and lightning that roused some people from sleep, the storm dropped snow at phenomenal rates of 3-5 inches an hour between dawn at 7 a.m. and early afternoon.

"That's about as hard as it can snow in New York City, and it's extremely rare," said Jeff Warner, a meteorologist with Pennsylvania State University.

Across the region, the 24-hour snow accumulations were equally awesome: 27.8 inches in Fairfield, Conn.; 22.5 inches in Columbia Hills, Md., and 21.3 inches in Newark, N.J.

While meteorologists and public officials called the timing fortuitous, coming over the weekend when millions of residents had no need to commute to work and school, the storm nonetheless caused major disruptions.

Gov. George E. Pataki activated the state's Emergency Operations Centers in New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties to work with local officials on snow removal and other storm-related tasks.

Cutting visibility sharply and rendering travel treacherous or impossible, the storm shut down Kennedy International, La Guardia and Newark Liberty International Airports in the metropolitan area, and Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington. It also forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights into and out of the Northeast, and delayed thousands more flights from airports in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other cities.

Delta, Song, the Delta Shuttle and American Airlines canceled all flights out of La Guardia.

But by 5 p.m. the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the metropolitan area airports, said that Newark Liberty and Kennedy airports had reopened to limited flights.