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Drivers stuck on Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va., on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, after a snowstorm. (Virginia Department of Transportation via The New York Times) - More than a full day after a snowstorm slammed into Virginia, stranding hundreds of drivers on a stretch of Interstate 95 south of Washington, many remained stuck in their cars Tuesday afternoon without food or water as rescuers worked to free them.
A 40-mile stretch of the highway — one of the busiest travel corridors in the United States — came to a standstill overnight after a fast-falling snow storm led to a jackknifed tractor-trailer and hundreds of other accidents. Some people abandoned their cars. Many, including a U.S. senator, spent the night on the snowy highway.
People were shivering for 20 hours or more in driver’s seats and truck cabs, watching fuel gauges sink over the sleepless night. State troopers slowly trudged from person to person, helping when they could with supplies. Tow trucks dragged car after disabled car out of the ice.
“It’s been so horrible,” Arlin Tellez, 22, said in an interview Tuesday morning from her car on the highway in Caroline County, Virginia, about 80 miles south of Washington. She had been trapped there since 5 p.m. Monday.
“There’s just no way for us to know what’s actually happening,” she said. “When we tried to call the police, because at this point that was our only resource, they literally just told us to hang on tight.”
Virginia State Police said they had not received any reports of injuries or deaths related to the storm, but authorities around the Mid-Atlantic said it had caused at least five deaths.
Officials said the storm began Monday with rain, which would have washed away road salts, and quickly overwhelmed efforts to keep the highway clear. Rain turned to sleet and then snow, which fell at a rate of 2 inches an hour for 4-5 hours, according to Marcie Parker, a Virginia Department of Transportation engineer.
Parker said a “significant” number of vehicles remained trapped on the highway. Parker said that crews and tow trucks may finish clearing the interstate of ice and vehicles by Tuesday night.
The snowstorm trapped truckers, students, families and every stripe of commuter, including Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
“This has been a miserable experience,” Kaine told WTOP, a Washington-area radio station.
The storm caused problems around the region, knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of customers in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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