Drivers endure frigid night on blocked highway
RICHMOND, Va. — Emergency crews on Tuesday afternoon freed the last of hundreds of drivers stranded by a snowstorm on Interstate 95 in Virginia, after more than 24 shivering hours of watching gas gauges drop, rationing food and water and holding out for any kind of help.
Problems began Monday morning when a truck jackknifed on Interstate 95, the main north-south highway along the East Coast, triggering a swift chain reaction as other vehicles lost control, state police said. Lanes in both directions became blocked across a 40-mile stretch of I-95 north of Richmond. As hours passed and night fell, motorists posted messages on social media about running out of fuel, food and water.
Meera Rao and her husband, Raghavendra, were driving home from visiting their daughter in North Carolina when they got stuck Monday evening. They were only 100 feet past an exit but could not move for roughly 16 hours.
“Not one police (officer) came in the 16 hours we were stuck,” she said. “No one came. It was just shocking. Being in the most advanced country in the world, no one knew how to even clear one lane for all of us to get out of that mess?”
There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or deaths.
Around daybreak, road crews began helping drivers get off “at any available interchange,” the Virginia Department of Transportation tweeted.
An Associated Press photographer who flew in a helicopter along a 50-mile stretch of interstate observed about a dozen clusters of stuck vehicles on Tuesday afternoon.
Marcie Parker, a Virginia Department of Transportation engineer leading the effort to clear the interstate, said crews were trying to first clear vehicles that could move on their own. Then they would tow disabled or abandoned ones and plow, she said, adding that the roadway was expected to be cleared for the Wednesday morning rush hour.
People could be seen walking down traffic lanes still covered with ice and snow.
Gov. Ralph Northam said his team responded through the night by sending emergency messages to connect drivers with help and working with local officials to set up warming shelters as needed. Officials told reporters crews were helping distribute food, water and fuel.
People who were stranded overnight and their families lashed out at Northam on Twitter, asking why the Virginia National Guard was not deployed.
Northam said in an interview that he opted not to request National Guard help because the issue facing state crews was not a lack of manpower but the difficulty of getting workers and equipment through the snow and ice to where they needed to be.
Sen. Tim Kaine, who lives in Richmond, said he was stuck in his car 21 hours after starting his two-hour commute to the Capitol at 1 p.m. Monday.
“This has been a miserable experience,” Kaine told WTOP. Traffic was so tightly
packed that emergency vehicles struggled to remove disabled cars and trucks, he said.