Virginia storm leaves motorists stranded on I-95

By Melissa Mahtani, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes and Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 6:41 p.m. ET, January 4, 2022
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9:03 a.m. ET, January 4, 2022

Sen. Tim Kaine says he has been stuck on I-95 for 19 hours

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said he has been stuck on Interstate 95 for 19 hours now, jammed in traffic due to the snowstorm that pummeled Washington, DC, yesterday.

He said he started driving to DC at 1 p.m. ET yesterday, and his office is speaking with the Virginia Department of Transportation to help other stranded motorists.

A 50-mile stretch of the interstate was closed this morning so workers could remove stuck trucks and treat the roadway for icing.

The Fredericksburg, Virginia, area received at least 14 inches of snow from the storm, according to the National Weather Service.

8:58 a.m. ET, January 4, 2022

Here's what the scene looks like on I-95 this morning

From CNN's David Williams

Isaac Arcos, who is stranded on I-95 northbound and is about two miles away from Exit 110, got out of his car and shot video of the scene around 6 a.m. ET.

Arcos was driving from Winston Salem, North Carolina, to the Quantico Marine base and was expecting to arrive at about midnight. He said he has been stuck on the road for about seven hours.

Arcos said he’s got warm clothes — but doesn’t have any food or water. His phone had about 13% charge and he’s got about 34 miles worth of gas left in his vehicle.

“I turn on my car only when too much heat escapes it and then I heat up my car for about 15 minutes and turn it off for about an hour or so,” he said.

Here's the video he took this morning:

9:31 a.m. ET, January 4, 2022

Emergency message will be sent to all stranded drivers on I-95

From CNN’s Jennifer Henderson

(@RalphNortham/Twitter)
(@RalphNortham/Twitter)

An emergency message will be going to all stranded drivers on I-95 to put them in contact with support, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tweeted Tuesday.

Northam said his team has been working throughout the night with the Virginia State Police, Virginia Department of Transportation and Virginia Department of Emergency Management responding to the I-95 situation.

Local and state emergency personnel continue to assist disabled vehicles, clear downed trees and re-route drivers, he tweeted.

The commonwealth is also working to set up warming shelters with localities, the tweet said.

9:27 a.m. ET, January 4, 2022

Drivers remain stranded on major interstate in eastern Virginia following Monday's winter storm

From CNN's Kelly McCleary, Joe Sutton and Jason Hanna

This image provided by the Virginia department of Transportation shows a closed section of Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va. Monday Jan. 3, 2022. Both northbound and southbound sections of the highway were closed due to snow and ice.
This image provided by the Virginia department of Transportation shows a closed section of Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va. Monday Jan. 3, 2022. Both northbound and southbound sections of the highway were closed due to snow and ice. (Virginia Department of Transportation/AP)

Drivers have been stranded for hours on a major interstate in eastern Virginia— some stuck from Monday into Tuesday morning — after a severe winter storm caused massive backups, sending authorities scrambling to clear a path.

In some places in the Fredericksburg area, vehicles were still stranded shortly before sunrise Tuesday partly because of disabled trucks, and some travelers have been stuck since Monday morning, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VODT) said.

The stuck vehicles were on portions of I-95 between exit 104 near Carmel Church and exit 152 at Dumfries Road — a roughly 50-mile stretch that runs though Fredericksburg between Richmond and Washington, DC.

That 50-mile stretch was closed Tuesday morning so workers could remove stopped trucks and treat the road for icing, VODT said.

Motorists expressed their anger on social media as they sat in vehicles, unable to move and worried about the falling temperature after a storm that dropped several inches of snow across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast and left more than 400,000 customers without power.

Read more here.