(Washington) Many motorists were stranded Tuesday morning on a highway in the northeastern United States, some spending nearly 20 hours in their cars after a winter storm that blanketed the area and brought heavy snowfall.
An 86-kilometre section of Interstate I-95 leading to Washington, DC, was closed Tuesday, as authorities tried to block roads due to stumps, crippled trucks, snowpacks and more icy patches.
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Car and truck drivers are stranded on a snow-covered highway that leads to Washington.
“We know that many travelers have been stranded for far too long on I-95 in the past 24 hours,” a Virginia Department of Transportation representative said Tuesday, noting in a statement that the situation was “unprecedented.”
Among the drivers stuck in this hub is Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, former Hillary Clinton Representative in 2016.
“My trip (to Washington), which usually takes two hours, began yesterday at 1 p.m. Nineteen hours later, I’m still away from the Capitol,” where US elected officials are seated, he tweeted Tuesday morning with a photo of his car stuck behind three trucks.
“Be careful, everyone,” said the former governor of Virginia.
“All Virginians should continue to avoid I-95,” tweeted the current governor of this state, Ralph Northam, who confirmed that his teams worked “all night” and continue their efforts to clear the highway.
The state and local communities are also working to open heated shelters for motorists.
The storm that hit the region on Monday dumped nearly twenty centimeters of snow, paralyzed Washington, D.C., and especially impeded President Joe Biden on his Air Force One for half an hour.
Nearly 272,000 homes remained without power in Virginia on Tuesday, as well as tens of thousands more in neighboring Maryland, according to the specialist website Power Outage.