The snow storm and bad weather in general that has plagued part of the south and the mid-Atlantic area of the United States is five dead. The victims also included two children, aged seven and five, who died respectively in Tennessee and Georgia due to the collapse of a tree. Three other people died in the Washington DC metropolitan area after an SUV collided with a snow plow. Monday’s storm was the most significant since 2019 and left hundreds of people stranded both on the streets and at airports. Over three thousand flights were canceled in one day.
Hundreds of motorists were trapped in their vehicles on a highway in the northeastern United States, some after spending nearly 20 hours in their vehicle due to the winter storm that blanketed the region with snow and caused numerous trees to fall. . An 86-kilometer section of I-95, leading to the US capital Washington, has been closed and authorities are trying to make it viable by removing blockages caused by tree trunks, immobilized trucks, snowdrifts and patches of ice. “We know that many travelers have been stuck on I-95 for a long time in the past 24 hours,” a Virginia Department of Transportation representative said, saying in a statement that the situation was “unprecedented.”
Democratic Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s former running mate in 2016, was among the drivers stuck on that axis. “I started my journey, which normally lasts two hours, yesterday at 1:00 pm. Nineteen hours later, I’m still far from the Capitol, ”Kaine tweeted, attaching a photo of her car stuck behind three trucks. “Be careful, everyone,” said the former Virginia governor. “All Virginia residents should continue to avoid I-95,” also tweeted the current governor of the state, Ralph Northam, who assures that his teams have been working “all night” and continue their efforts to free the highway. The state and local communities are also working to open heated shelters for motorists. The storm that hit the region on Monday deposited twenty centimeters of snow, paralyzing the capital Washington and holding President Joe Biden in his Air Force One for half an hour. Nearly 272,000 homes in Virginia on Tuesday and tens of thousands more in Maryland were left without electricity.