Interstate 95, one the busiest travel routes in the United States, was shut down early Tuesday morning south of Washington, D.C., due to the region’s recovery from a winter storm that left at least five people dead.
“Ice will be problematic into Tuesday where heavy wet snow fell,” the National Weather Service saidThe frigid overnight temperatures will most likely cause roads to freeze, resulting in dangerous travel conditions for morning commuters.
A 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 was closed early Tuesday in the Fredricksburg, Va., area after accidents involving several tractor-trailers, leading to long delays on one of the East Coast’s major traffic arteries, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Social media reports that interstate drivers were left stranded. more than 12 hours. Josh Lederman is a NBC News correspondent. said on Twitter that he had been stuck in his carDo not move for longer than seven hours. “The interstate is absolutely littered with disabled vehicles,” he said. “Not just cars. Semis, everything. Nobody can move. People are running out of gas or abandoning vehicles.”
VDOT did not respond to our requests for comment immediately.
Parts of Virginia were hit with more than 15 inches of snow. By Tuesday morning, more than 280,000 customers were still without power. PowerOutage.us aggregates data from utilities across the United States. Tens of thousands of outages were also reported by Maryland, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Monday’s storm led to the deaths of at least five people. According to the Montgomery County Police Department, two Maryland women and one man died when their vehicle collided against a snowplow. Police said that another man in the vehicle was also injured in the crash.
The storm also caused tree limbs and power lines to be damaged as well as weighed down power lines. According to ABC 9, a local television station located in Chattanooga, a tree that fell on a house in eastern Tennessee caused the death of a 7 year-old girl. According to CBS 46, a television station located in Atlanta, a tree fell onto a Georgia 5-year-old boy’s house.
The opening hours of federal government offices in Washington were delayed by three hours on Tuesday. Schools in Northern Virginia, as well as parts further south, including Richmond, had announced closings. Baltimore County Public SchoolsMaryland announced that it would open two hours late while New Jersey had several similar plans.
Some areas had seen snow accumulations that exceeded meteorologists’ predictions by Monday night. Huntingtown (Md.) received 15.5 inches. according to the Weather Service. Glendie, Va. received 14.6 inches while Ellendale, Del. received 14.5 inches. Washington received more than eight inches.
The forecast for Tuesday across the Washington region looked favorable, although the combination of clear skies and snow-covered ground was expected to cause “bitterly cold” temperatures in the teens and low 20s, the Weather Service said. Temperatures will reach the mid- to high 30s before dropping overnight. Similar forecasts were made for New Jersey. New York City saw clear skies and dry conditions with temperatures in mid-30s and gusty wind early.
Source: NY Times
