Many motorists were stranded Tuesday morning January 4 on a highway in the northeast of the United States, some having spent nearly 20 hours in their vehicles after the winter storm that blanketed the region with snow and caused many falling trees.
Read alsoMore than 600,000 homes in the northeastern United States deprived of electricity after a violent storm
An 86-kilometer section of the I-95 freeway, leading to the U.S. capital Washington, was closed on Tuesday, as authorities tried to make lanes obstructed by tree trunks, immobilized trucks, piles of snow and more. patches of ice.
"
We know that many travelers have been stranded for a very long time on the I-95 freeway in the past 24 hours,
" a representative of the Virginia Department of Transportation said Tuesday, saying in a statement that the situation was "
without previous
”.
Heated shelters for motorists
Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's former running mate in 2016, was among the drivers stuck on that axis. “
I started my trip (to Washington), which normally takes two hours, yesterday at 1:00 pm. Nineteen hours later, I am still far from the Capitol
”, where the American elected officials sit, he tweeted Tuesday morning with a photo of his car stuck behind three trucks. "
Be careful, everyone,
" said the former governor of Virginia. "
All the inhabitants of Virginia should continue to avoid I-95
", also tweeted the current governor of this state, Ralph Northam, who assures that his teams worked "
all night long.
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 deposited about twenty centimeters of snow, paralyzing the capital Washington and notably blocking President Joe Biden in his Air Force One plane for half an hour.
Nearly 272,000 homes remained without power in Virginia on Tuesday, as well as tens of thousands more in the neighboring state of Maryland, according to the specialized site Power Outage.
