Winter storm left more than 400,000 without power

This is what the destructive force of the winter storm that threatens the US looks like 3:27

(CNN) -

Motorists were stranded for hours on a major U.S. interstate highway Monday night after a severe winter storm caused a massive traffic jam and authorities struggled to clear the way.

"I wish we had a schedule, an estimated time, or an educated guess as to when advancement on I-95 will resume," the Virginia Department of Transportation said on Twitter, describing the situation as frustrating and terrifying.

Motorists expressed their anger on social media while sitting in their vehicles, unable to move forward and concerned about the drop in temperature after a storm that dropped several inches of snow in the Mid-Atlantic region and the southeast of the country and left more than 400,000 customers without power.

• Look on this map what is the forecast of snowfall in your area

Image of a car stuck in the snow in Alexandria, Virginia, when a winter blizzard hit the Northern Virginia area on Monday.

The section of I-95 in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area was blocked by several damaged vehicles and downed trees, the Virginia Department of Transportation said.

"As the Virginia Department of Transportation removes the damaged vehicles and clears the snow and tends to the road to be safe to pass as they are removed, the (Virginia State Police) officers will reach out to each driver." said the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The Fredericksburg area fell at least 14 inches of snow from the storm, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) in the Baltimore / Washington area.

Fredericksburg is located between Richmond, Virginia, and Washington.

An estimated 20 to 30 trucks were stuck on northbound I-95 near the Thornburg exit, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation, which said towing crews were at the scene.

advertising

On the south side, stuck and damaged trucks blocked traffic on the interstate in Stafford, the Virginia Department of Transportation reported.

"We know that people have been detained for extraordinary periods of time that led to the closure of these areas, but we are removing the trucks one by one to break this blockade, we will reach each driver and restore the flow of traffic," Kelly told CNN Hannon, Virginia Department of Transportation's Fredericksburg District Communications Manager.

• From floods and wildfires to inaction and urgency: these are the top climate and weather stories of 2021

"Crews continue to work intensively to tow vehicles that are stuck and blocking the interstate near the 136th mile markers in Stafford County, and then snow clearing and repairing the interstate to avoid subsequent crashes," Hannon said.

"This is also occurring where traffic remains stopped on Interstate 95 northbound at milepost 117 in Spotsylvania County."

Power outages from the storm have affected traffic cameras in the area of ​​I-95 near Fredericksburg, where travel stalls, making it difficult for the Virginia Department of Transportation to respond, Hannon said.

CNN en Español correspondent Gustavo Valdés was among those caught in traffic.

He said that when he stopped to get gas around 6 p.m., his GPS told him he was two hours from Washington.

At one o'clock in the morning on Tuesday, he had not yet arrived.

Gustavo Valdés, a correspondent for CNN en Español, took this photo from Route 1A in Virginia.

Valdes said he went off the highway near Quantico, Virginia, but back roads were also jammed.

Route 1A, which runs parallel to I-95 in the area, was blocked by trucks with blades blocking snow plows.

Valdes said he considered pulling over to the side of the road for the night in his car because he couldn't find an available hotel room, but traffic had started to move again.

Some four-wheel drive vehicles helped create new paths through the snow for other vehicles to follow, he said.

While traffic was tangled on the interstate, drivers were also urged to stay away from local roads as dozens of traffic signs were out of service due to power outages, authorities said.

More than 400,000 customers were in the dark Tuesday morning from Georgia to Maryland, with nearly 300,000 power outages reported in Virginia alone, according to PowerOutage.US.

Further north on I-95, federal government offices in Washington opened with a three-hour delay Tuesday after being closed Monday due to the storm.

The district recorded 8.5 inches of snow Monday, the heaviest total snowfall in a single day since January 2016, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said.

Capitol Heights, Maryland, recorded 11 inches of snow and the Baltimore / Washington International Airport recorded 6 inches.

Truck collides with snow plow kills 3, authorities say

Three people were killed in Maryland after a four-seater van collided with a snow plow, according to Shiera Goff, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Police Department.

Two women and a man were pronounced dead at the scene, Goff said, and a fourth victim, a man, was taken to an area hospital where he is in critical condition.

The investigation into the cause of the collision is ongoing, Goff said.

In the southeast, two children were killed by falling trees Monday morning, authorities said.

In Georgia, a 5-year-old boy in the Atlanta area was killed when a tree fell on his home in gusts of wind, DeKalb County Fire Department spokesman Capt.Jaeson Daniels told CNN affiliate WSB.

The boy's mother was rescued, the outlet reported.

A person walks on the sidewalk in Alexandria, Virginia, when a winter snow storm hit the northern Virginia area on Monday.

The area was saturated from recent rains, Daniels told WSB.

The NWS in Atlanta warned of possible wind gusts of 40 to 80 km / h Monday morning.

And in Tennessee, a 7-year-old girl died early Monday morning when a tree fell on her Knoxville-area home, the Blount County Sheriff's Office told CNN affiliate WVLT.

"There are trees all over the county, particularly here in Townsend, because we are right at the foot of Great Smoky National Park," Blount County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Marian O'Briant told WVLT.

"There are a lot of trees; it was kind of a heavy, wet snow, so the trees are still falling right now."

CNN has reached out to the DeKalb County Fire Department and the Blount County Sheriff's Office.

Winter weather also affected commutes in New Jersey, where state police reported 160 accidents and 245 requests for help from motorists, according to state police superintendent Colonel Patrick Callahan.

In Atlantic City, 9 inches of snow were reported.

Southwest New Jersey received as much as 4 inches of snow, while the southeastern part of the state recorded as much as 11 inches, Gov. Phil Murphy said.

CNN's Amir Vera contributed to this report.

winter storm