LONDON (AFP) - Angry passengers who were stranded in trains in the Channel Tunnel described their ordeal Saturday, as thousands found their travel plans thrown into disarray by the cold weather in France. Passengers on five trains were forced to bed down for the night under the English Channel, after freezing temperatures caused trains to lose power once they entered the 50-kilometre (30-mile) tunnel in France on Friday evening. All the trains were eventually removed from the tunnel, but Eurostar later suspended most services between London, Brussels and Paris on Saturday. People who had been on board the stricken trains recounted scenes of passengers angrily confronting staff, as supplies of water ran short in trains in which the air conditioning failed to work. One passenger, Philippe Serna, said he had been stuck in the tunnel for four hours on the way to London before another train came to take passengers the rest of the way. He said: I got on about 5:30 pm (1630GMT) in Paris and we got into the tunnel about halfway through when we stopped. We were stuck there for about four hours and then they announced there would be another train coming to meet us. We got out and walked down the tunnel only a short distance, and Kent Fire Brigade were there, and they put us on a shuttle which took us to Folkestone where we got back on another Eurostar which brought us here. He said the journey had been boring, frustrating and a bit stuffy. A furious Patrick Dussaut telephoned AFP from a train which by mid-morning Saturday had still not reached London after a 16-hour journey. The Frenchman said passengers were furious with the way they had been treated. People have been stuck in the train for 16 and a half hours non-stop, without being able to open the doors. The only people who managed to get out of the train were some no doubt important people in first class. They got out at 7:00am or 8:00am this morning. There have been heated arguments between Eurostar staff and passengers who were fed up of being shut inside the trains. On a human level, the management has been catastrophic. A Eurostar spokesman said all passengers had arrived in London by Saturday afternoon. At Londons Saint Pancras International station, thousands of passengers stared in desperation at screens announcing that: Due to severe weather conditions, all Eurostar services are cancelled until further notice. Many feared their Christmas plans could be in jeopardy. John Hornby, 68, and his wife Marion, from Watford outside London, were anxiously waiting to see if their 10-day holiday in Switzerland could still go ahead, if they could not cross the Channel. Eurostar has been running for 15 years and one would have thought they have had these sort of temperatures to deal with before, Hornby said. Meanwhile, in America, a major snowstorm blanketed a large swathe of the eastern United States on Saturday, delaying flights and snarling traffic across the region on the last weekend of the Christmas holiday shopping season. In the bullseye of the storm, Baltimore and Washington in a snow emergency were on track to break record December snowfall, with one to two feet forecast by dawn Sunday. That would eclipse Washingtons 12-inch (30-centimetre) record set in 1932, and Baltimores record 14.1 inches (35.8 cm) from 1960. Some areas were forecast to receive up to two feet (61 centimetres) of snow. As snow piled up in the early morning hours, the White House was whiter than usual, barely visible from just a block away. But the conditions were just as perilous as they were scenic, authorities warned. This is a very serious storm, said Maryland Emergency Management chief Richard Muth. The next 12-to-15 hours are going to be very hazardous, Muth added, warning people not to head out unless it is essential, on this last weekend of the Christmas holiday shopping season. Governor Tim Kaine earlier declared a state of emergency in Virginia, urging people not to take to the streets. Warnings were in effect along the Atlantic Coast, from North Carolina and Tennessee to New Jersey and Connecticut, with the storm pounding major cities, including Washington, Baltimore and New York, according to the National Weather Service. Those cities were also under a blizzard warning, which leads to white out conditions that make travel dangerous. Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia were also hit hard by the storm. President Barack Obama raced back to Washington to avoid the worst of the storm, and landed at Andrews Air Force Base with snow falling shortly after 1:00am (0600 GMT). Snowplows cleared the runway as Obamas blue and white Air Force One jumbo jet landed. He headed home after spending less than 24 hours in Copenhagen for climate change talks that culminated with a draft deal to limit global warming. The National Weather service warned that weather conditions in the capital area hit by blowing snow coupled with cold and windy conditions made travel extremely treacherous. Do not travel. If you must travel, have a winter survival kit with you. If you get stranded, stay with your vehicle, it warned. Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty on Saturday declared a snow emergency. If this were a workday, significant activities in the city would have been paralyzed, Fenty said. The capitals bus system was experiencing major delays due to the heavy snow, though the Metrorail system was largely unaffected. The winter wallop would likely take a bite out of retail sales on Super Saturday, a major shopping day before Christmas. Fenty was confident that the streets of the US capital would be cleaned up by Monday. Hundreds of flight were either cancelled or delayed in major hubs like Chicago, New York, and Washington. The regional airport authority said on its website around 1600 GMT that very few flights were scheduled to operate Saturday. Crews nevertheless worked around the clock to clear runways at Washington Dulles International Airport and Reagan National Airport.