Able to Get Out in the Cold Again January 5
All disabled vehicles were removed from I-95 in that stretch in the Fredericksburg surface area between Richmond and Washington, D.C., by viii p.grand., transportation officials said.
A Mon storm dumped more than a foot of snow in the area and not just stranded highway travelers overnight, but also snarled traffic on other roads and halted an Amtrak rider railroad train for more than than 30 hours.
At 1 betoken, the tempest left more than 400,000 customers in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast without power.
On Virginia'due south I-95, motorists became stuck Monday into Tuesday partly because of disabled trucks blocking the way in snowy and icy conditions, state transportation officials said.
Drivers described turning their engines on for a fourth dimension to oestrus up, turning them off to conserve fuel, and sharing nutrient and supplies with ane another as crews tried to articulate trucks blocking the way afterwards they were unable to go along in water ice and snow. Temperatures had dipped into the teens overnight.
Jim DeFede, a journalist who was driving home to Miami after a holiday visit with family in New York, told CNN'due south Jake Tapper on Tuesday that once he stopped, he was stuck for 18 hours.
He said he watched others who got out of their cars skid and slide on the ice and he stayed put, thinking there was no way emergency responders would go there if he fell and was injure.
He said he had heard reports there were no deaths or injuries.
"That'southward peachy. Merely that's just -- that'southward but dumb luck at this point," he said. "This could have been a lot more serious."
He said 1 trucker was handing out bottles of water and one bread delivery truck opened its doors and people handed out loaves.
DeFede finally got moving but was sent north, in the direction he had come up from until, after two hours, he got off the interstate and found a place to stay.
US Sen. Tim Kaine, who was driving toward Washington, said he was stuck on I-95 for more 24 hours.
"At some point, it switched from a miserable travel solar day into kind of a survival fashion day for me," the Virginia Democrat told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on Tuesday by phone. "And the roads are incredibly slick, and my car is sliding around, and I don't accept food or drink in my car, and then I was more than focused on, 'OK, how do I safely get out of this mess.' "
Long lines of vehicles were snarled in portions of the roughly 50-mile stretch between exit 104 virtually Ruther Glen and exit 152 near Dumfries. Authorities closed that portion of the highway so workers could remove disabled vehicles and treat the road for snowfall and icing, the Virginia Section of Transportation said.
Hazardous conditions lingered Wed, as some roads notwithstanding were icy, VDOT said.
Another winter storm could hitting fundamental and eastward-cardinal Virginia tardily Thursday into Friday morning. Snow "could create additional travel disruptions into the Friday morning commute," the National Weather Service said Wednesday morn.
'I could have walked domicile faster than this'
Motorists expressed frustration on social media Mon and Tuesday every bit they saturday in vehicles on I-95, unable to movement and worried well-nigh beneath-freezing overnight and morning temperatures.
Past 11 a.1000. Tuesday, Susan Phalen was able to finally commencement driving her car again on northbound I-95 after being stuck merely southward of Stafford for virtually 15 hours. "I could have walked dwelling faster than this, pretty much," Phalen told CNN by phone.
But the southbound traffic she was passing still was stuck late that morning. "It's semi truck after semi truck after semi truck ... non even rolling an inch," she said.
Likewise trapped on I-95 overnight was Jennifer Travis, who with her husband and 12-year-onetime girl were driving a rental machine back to their Virginia dwelling from Florida because their return flight had been canceled twice.
They were stuck on I-95 for hours early Tuesday with enough fuel for heat, merely with no water or food. By 10 a.m., the family had been able to take an exit, merely now was driving a road that hadn't been plowed.
Many secondary roads in the region were blocked by downed trees or wintry conditions, authorities said, and so fifty-fifty those able to get off I-95 faced difficult travels.
"Trees are down, cars are just everywhere. ... It'due south treacherous," Travis told CNN by phone.
Aerial video from CNN chapter WJLA showed numerous vehicles stationary Tuesday morning time on four lanes of I-95 in Caroline County, south of Fredericksburg. A few people, including children, were standing outside cars. One human being was walking his canis familiaris on a leash.
Phalen -- who had been stuck north of Fredericksburg -- said she left her Fredericksburg home effectually 8 p.yard. Monday for a trip to Alexandria which she'd expected to final merely an hour.
She left Fredericksburg, she said, because her home lost power, and she as well lost cell telephone service there.
"Because I didn't have cell phone or internet connectedness at the firm in Fredericksburg, I wasn't able to see this nightmare I was walking into until I was smack dab in the middle of it, and then it was too late," Phalen said.
She said she started with a full tank of gas, and was able to keep her car running for heat.
More than a pes of snowfall
The Fredericksburg area received at to the lowest degree 14 inches of snow from the storm, according to the National Weather Service in the Baltimore/Washington area.
"We know people take been stopped for extraordinary time periods leading up to these closure areas, only we are immigration trucks one past ane to intermission through this blockage, and we volition get to each commuter and restore traffic menses," Kelly Hannon, spokesperson for the VDOT Fredericksburg Commune, told CNN early Tuesday.
A trucker, Jean-Carlo Gachet, was stuck for hours on I-95 near Dale City from about one a.m. Tuesday, he said.
He had food, water and a microwave, then he shared a heated breakfast with a man and his mother in a vehicle in forepart of him, he said. "Easily the longest traffic jam I've been in," said Gachet, who said he'd left Rhode Isle effectually v p.chiliad. Monday and was trying to get to Georgia.
CNN en Español correspondent Gustavo Valdés was among those stuck in traffic. He said when he stopped for gas around vi p.m., his GPS said he was two hours from Washington. Past 1 a.thou. Tuesday, he still hadn't arrived.
Valdés said he exited the highway near Quantico, Virginia, only the side roads were also jammed. Route 1A, which runs parallel to I-95 in the expanse, was blocked by jackknifed trucks, which were preventing snowplows from getting through.
Valdés said he considered pulling to the side of the route to spend the night in his car because he couldn't find an bachelor hotel room, merely traffic had started moving again.
Some 4-wheel-drive vehicles helped create new paths through the snowfall for other vehicles to follow, he said.
While traffic was snarled on the interstate, drivers were as well urged to stay off local roadways equally dozens of traffic signals were out of service due to power outages, officials said.
More than 270,000 customers were in the night Tuesday afternoon from Georgia to Maryland, with virtually 235,000 outages reported in Virginia alone, according to PowerOutage.Us.
Federal offices in Washington open up with 3-hour delay
Further north on I-95, federal government offices in Washington, DC, opened with a 3-hour filibuster Tuesday after existence shuttered Monday due to the atmospheric condition. The district recorded 8.5 inches of snow Monday, the heaviest one-day snowfall total since Jan 2016, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said. Capitol Heights, Maryland, recorded 11.five inches of snow and Baltimore/Washington International Airdrome reported half dozen.vii inches.
It could take several weeks for all that snow to melt, CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said, explaining that the white layer of snowfall embrace reflects sunlight, essentially interim every bit a coolant that prevents the ground surface from warming enough to melt it.
On average, it takes almost iii days of temperatures above l degrees for nearly 2 to 4 inches of snow to cook, Javaheri said, and the Washington surface area is forecast to stay below that marking through at least the stop of the week.
3 killed when SUV collided with snowplow, officials say
Iii deaths were reported in Maryland after an SUV with iv occupants collided with a snowplow, co-ordinate to Shiera Goff, spokesperson for the Montgomery County Constabulary Section. 2 women and i man were pronounced dead at the scene, Goff said, and a fourth victim, a man, was taken to an surface area hospital where he is in critical status.
The investigation into the cause of the collision is ongoing, Goff said.
In the Southeast, two children were killed by falling trees Monday morning, officials said.
In Georgia, a 5-year-old boy in the Atlanta area died when a tree savage on his home during gusting winds, DeKalb County Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Jaeson Daniels told CNN affiliate WSB. The boy's mother was safely rescued, the outlet reported.
The ground in the area was saturated by recent rainfall, Daniels told WSB. The weather service in Atlanta warned of possible current of air gusts from 40 to fifty mph Monday morning.
And in Tennessee, a 7-year-old daughter died early Mon when a tree fell on her home in the Knoxville area, the Blount County Sheriff'south Part told CNN chapter WVLT.
"In that location are copse down all over the canton, particularly here in Townsend, because we are right at the foothills of the Smashing Smoky National Park," BCSO Public Data Officer Marian O'Briant told WVLT. "There are a lot of trees; it was kind of a wet heavy snow, so trees are still falling right now."
CNN has reached out to DeKalb County Burn down Rescue and the Blount County Sheriff's Office.
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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/weather/winter-weather-tuesday/index.html
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