弗吉尼亚州州长拉尔夫·诺瑟姆 (Ralph Northam) 周二在推特上说，将向 I-95 上所有滞留的司机发送紧急信息，让他们与支持人员联系。
他在推特上说，当地和州紧急救援人员正在协助残疾车辆、清理倒塌的树木和重新安排司机的路线。
这条推文说，英联邦还在努力与当地建立温暖的避难所。
VDOT Fredericksburg 工程师 Marcie Parker 说：“这是史无前例的，我们继续稳步移动停着的卡车，以在恢复车道方面取得进展。”
VDOT 说：“随着 VDOT 拆除残障车辆，并在拆除道路时犁/处理道路以确保通行安全，（弗吉尼亚州警察）士兵将到达每位司机。”
根据巴尔的摩/华盛顿地区的国家气象局的数据，弗雷德里克斯堡地区的风暴降雪量至少为 14 英寸。弗雷德里克斯堡位于弗吉尼亚州里士满和华盛顿特区之间。
据 VDOT 称，估计有 20 到 30 辆卡车被困在 I-95 北行的 Thornburg 出口附近，据 VDOT 称，拖车人员在现场。
“我们知道人们在通往这些封闭区域的特殊时间段被拦下，但我们正在一辆一辆地清理卡车以突破封锁，我们将联系到每位司机并恢复交通流量，”该公司发言人凯利汉农说。 VDOT 弗雷德里克斯堡区告诉 CNN。
汉农说：“工作人员继续加紧工作，以拖曳卡住并阻塞斯塔福德县 136 英里标记附近的州际公路的车辆，然后犁并处理州际公路以防止后续事故。”
他说，一名名叫让-卡洛·加歇 (Jean-Carlo Gachet) 的卡车司机从凌晨 1 点左右在戴尔市附近的 I-95 州际公路上被困了几个小时。
他说，他里面有食物、水和微波炉，所以他和前面一辆车里的一个男人和他的母亲分享了一份热腾腾的早餐。 “这很容易成为我遇到的最长的交通堵塞，”加歇说，他说他在下午 5 点左右离开了罗德岛。星期一，正试图去乔治亚州。
CNN en Español 记者古斯塔沃·巴尔德斯 (Gustavo Valdés) 是被堵在路上的人之一。他说，当他在下午 6 点左右停下来加油时，他的 GPS 显示他距离华盛顿有两个小时的路程。到周二凌晨 1 点，他仍然没有到。
巴尔德斯说，他离开了弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科附近的高速公路，但小路也被堵死了。 1A 号公路与该地区的 I-95 平行，被叉车阻塞，导致扫雪机无法通过。
巴尔德斯说，他考虑把车停在路边，在他的车里过夜，因为他找不到可用的酒店房间，但交通又开始流动了。
他说，一些四轮驱动车辆帮助其他车辆在雪地中开辟了新的路径。
官员们表示，虽然州际公路上的交通受到干扰，但由于停电，数十个交通信号灯停止服务，因此也敦促司机远离当地道路。
根据 PowerOutage.US 的数据，周二早上从乔治亚州到马里兰州，有超过 40 万名客户处于黑暗中，仅弗吉尼亚州就报告了近 30 万次停电。
在 I-95 的更北边，华盛顿特区的联邦政府办公室在周一因天气关闭后于周二延迟三个小时开放。美国有线电视新闻网气象学家布兰登米勒说，该地区周一录得 8.5 英寸的降雪，这是自 2016 年 1 月以来最大的单日降雪总量。马里兰州 Capitol Heights 录得 11.5 英寸降雪，巴尔的摩/华盛顿国际机场报告降雪 6.7 英寸。
CNN 气象学家 Pedram Javaheri 说，所有雪都可能需要几周时间才能融化，并解释说白色的雪层反射阳光，本质上是作为一种冷却剂，防止地表变暖到足以融化它。
Javaheri 说，平均而言，气温超过 50 度需要三天左右的时间才能融化大约 2 到 4 英寸的雪，而华盛顿地区预计至少在本周末之前都将保持在这一水平以下。
'This is unprecedented'
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.
Local and state emergency personnel are assisting disabled vehicles, clearing downed trees and rerouting drivers, he tweeted.
The commonwealth is also working to set up warming shelters with localities, the tweet says.
"This is unprecedented, and we continue to steadily move stopped trucks to make progress toward restoring lanes," VDOT Fredericksburg engineer Marcie Parker said.
"As VDOT removes disabled vehicles, and plows/treats road to make it safe for passage as they are removed, (Virginia State Police) troopers will reach each driver," VDOT said.
The Fredericksburg area received at least 14 inches of snow from the storm, according to the National Weather Service in the Baltimore/Washington area. Fredericksburg sits between Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
An estimated 20 to 30 trucks were stuck on I-95 northbound near the Thornburg exit, according to VDOT, which said towing crews were on the scene.
"We know people have been stopped for extraordinary time periods leading up to these closure areas, but we are clearing trucks one by one to break through this blockage, and we will get to each driver and restore traffic flow," Kelly Hannon, spokesperson for the VDOT Fredericksburg District, told CNN.
"Crews continue to work intensely to tow vehicles that are stuck and blocking the interstate near mile markers 136 in Stafford County, and then plow and treat the interstate to prevent follow-on crashes," Hannon said.
A trucker, Jean-Carlo Gachet, was stuck for hours on I-95 near Dale City from about 1 a.m., he said.
He had food, water and a microwave inside, so he shared a heated breakfast with a man and his mother in a vehicle in front of him, he said. "Easily the longest traffic jam I've been in," said Gachet, who said he'd left Rhode Island around 5 p.m. Monday and was trying to get to Georgia.
CNN en Español correspondent Gustavo Valdés was among those stuck in traffic. He said when he stopped for gas around 6 p.m., his GPS said he was two hours from Washington. By 1 a.m. Tuesday, he still hadn't arrived.
Valdés said he exited the highway near Quantico, Virginia, but the side roads were also jammed. Route 1A, which runs parallel to I-95 in the area, was blocked by jackknifed trucks, which were preventing snowplows from getting through.
Valdés said he considered pulling to the side of the road to spend the night in his car because he couldn't find an available hotel room, but traffic had started moving again.
Some four-wheel-drive vehicles helped create new paths through the snow for other vehicles to follow, he said.
While traffic was snarled on the interstate, drivers were also urged to stay off local roadways as dozens of traffic signals were out of service due to power outages, officials said.
More than 400,000 customers were in the dark Tuesday morning from Georgia to Maryland, with nearly 300,000 outages reported in Virginia alone, according to PowerOutage.US.
Further north on I-95, federal government offices in Washington, DC, are opening with a three-hour delay Tuesday after being shuttered Monday due to the weather. The district recorded 8.5 inches of snow Monday, the heaviest one-day snow total since January 2016, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said. Capitol Heights, Maryland, recorded 11.5 inches of snow and Baltimore/Washington International Airport reported 6.7 inches.
It could take several weeks for all that snow to melt, CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said, explaining that the white layer of snow cover reflects sunlight, essentially acting as a coolant that prevents the ground surface from warming enough to melt it.
On average, it takes about three days of temperatures above 50 degrees for about 2 to 4 inches of snow to melt, Javaheri said, and the Washington area is forecast to stay below that mark through at least the end of the week.
