Tyler Chambers had come this far only to get stuck again.

The 23-year-old South Carolina transplant and nor’easter neophyte spent 45 minutes spinning his Volkswagen Jetta’s wheels and digging it out of a snow cocoon at his Ocean City home early Monday. But when he arrived at work, he had to park on a snowbank while he and a co-worker shoveled a path into the lot.

The Eastern Shore, which rarely gets much snow, experienced its biggest winter storm in four years. The blizzard largely spared the Baltimore region, but it dumped more than a foot in New York City and packed a windy punch in Maryland’s beach towns.

Chambers and his colleague, Martez Gunby, finished their shoveling spree, and Chambers climbed back into his car on the snowbank. He gunned the engine — only to stall out again. Gunby, though, dropped his shovel and pushed the car safely into the lot of the Hampton Inn where they work.

“I thought we were going to start digging again,” Chambers laughed afterward at 8 a.m., with an air of victory.

Chambers, who moved to Ocean City in October and has only seen snow three times before, was one of the few residents out and about Monday morning.

The snow — more of a flaky sludge, really — began Sunday evening, and it didn’t just fall. Rather, it whipped through the air propelled by gusts strong enough to knock over pedestrians. By Monday afternoon, though, storm conditions had eased.

Hotels that overflow in the summer are sparse this time of year. Nobody swam in an indoor pool at one inn on Sunday; a guest gasped as she watched the snow forecast on a tablet.

Roughly half a foot of snow had fallen in the ghostly beach town by Monday morning, but strong winds made it difficult to calculate. Even the National Weather Service took to social media to ask for measurements.

Overnight, winds surpassing 50 mph battered power lines. At least one Ocean City company’s sign was blown off, leaving a canvas fluttering in the wind.

Traffic lights were operable, although many were covered in so much windswept powder that drivers had to squint to decipher red from green.

Residents across the Eastern Shore experienced power outages, with at least 3,000 Ocean City customers affected as of noon Monday, according to Delmarva Power. That number had decreased to 1,000 by 4 p.m.

In the residential Ocean Pines community, damage was especially bad. Squalls swatted down trees, which punctured roofs and blocked roads. Outside Assateague Island — where horses grazed in the snow — felled trees strained power lines and splintered poles.

The entire town of Berlin, population 5,000, lost power Sunday night, and National Guard members assisted crews with power restoration Monday. Tony Davis has lived in the area for all of his 72 years and likened the storm to one from the 1970s.

When his 92-year-old mother lost power Sunday, he drove to her house to manually assist her with the oxygen she needs to breathe. He spent the night there, called 911 when she got low on oxygen in the morning, and thanked the paramedics who promptly provided a tank.

“Thank the Lord, we made it, and she made it,” he said.

By Monday afternoon, his mom had power back, but his house didn’t. As he shoveled his driveway, he hoped his wife, their poodle and their gecko would be warmer by night.

Gunby worked the graveyard shift overnight Sunday in the mostly empty Ocean City hotel and could hear the wind whistling. He said he saw transformers blow outside.

“It was crazy,” he said. “It was kind of scary.”

Bishal Adhikari, a 24-year-old Ocean City resident from Nepal, felt the wind beating against his home Sunday night, too.

“I was feeling like the roof might blow away or something,” he said. “I was scared, actually.”

Adhikari walked to a grocery store Sunday, bought a few beers (Corona), then bundled up when his power went out. He emerged Monday morning and saw the impressive backdrop of snowfall at the beach while he FaceTimed family members in Nepal. As waves crashed nearby, he took video of himself sticking his hand into the snow — it came up to his wrist — to show its depth.

“It’s like Narnia,” another resident, Chasey Campbell, said.

Daring residents ventured to Ocean City’s inlet to watch the violent waves. Among them were Katarina Rice and her family, who dodged damage when their basketball hoop fell within a couple of inches of their car.

They were without power all night, but made do.

“We made snow cream by candlelight,” she said. “We knew we were going to get a big snow.”