Daily commute turns into a two-day traffic nightmare for Virginia woman
ovp test
Male shot by female at Shreveport apartment
Class to create biodiverse backyard
Rules for outbursts at Caddo School Board Meeting
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (NewsNation Now) — A Virginia woman who began her usual 45-minute daily commute from work Monday is finally at home Wednesday morning after being trapped alongside hundreds of motorists along a stretch of one of the nation’s biggest interstate highways.
Nicole Wells left work and began the drive home, taking Interstate 95 Monday evening. Wells was then trapped in standstill traffic about 30 minutes away from her home. where her children were waiting.
“My daughter, she FaceTimed me, and she was like, ‘Mommy, please come home. Come home. Mommy, please,'” Wells said. “And like it brought tears to my eyes because I was trying. But I wasn’t getting anywhere.”
Traffic was brought to a standstill along the U.S. East Coast’s main north-south highway, as it was impossible to move as the snow accumulated. Lanes in both directions eventually became blocked across an approximately 40-mile stretch of I-95 north of Richmond. Hours passed with hundreds of motorists posting increasingly desperate messages on social media about running out of fuel, food and water.
“You saw infants that parents are carrying the kids going down the hill to the cops to figure out what’s going on or just leaving their cars there,” Wells said. “There was no movement.”
After being stopped multiple times, she eventually headed back to her mom’s house which was nearby. She eventually got home late Tuesday night.
There were no reported deaths or injuries from the calamity on Interstate 95.
Motorists sit stranded on Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Hundreds of motorists were stranded all night in snow and freezing temperatures along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 after a crash involving six tractor-trailers in Virginia, where authorities were struggling Tuesday to reach them. (WJLA via AP) 
Motorists sit stranded on Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Hundreds of motorists were stranded all night in snow and freezing temperatures along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 after a crash involving six tractor-trailers in Virginia, where authorities were struggling Tuesday to reach them. (WJLA via AP) 
Motorists sit stranded on Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Hundreds of motorists were stranded all night in snow and freezing temperatures along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 after a crash involving six tractor-trailers in Virginia, where authorities were struggling Tuesday to reach them. (WJLA via AP) 
Motorists sit stranded on Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Hundreds of motorists were stranded all night in snow and freezing temperatures along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 after a crash involving six tractor-trailers in Virginia, where authorities were struggling Tuesday to reach them. (WJLA via AP) 
This image provided by the Virginia department of Transportation shows a closed section of Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va. Monday Jan. 3, 2022. Both northbound and southbound sections of the highway were closed due to snow and ice. (Virginia Department of Transportation via AP) 
This image provided by the Virginia department of Transportation shows a closed section of Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Va. Tuesday Jan. 4, 2022. Both northbound and southbound sections of the highway were closed due to snow and ice. (Virginia Department of Transportation via AP) 
“We all need to be clear that this was an incredibly unusual event,” Gov. Ralph Northam said at a news conference, adding that he could understand drivers’ “frustration and fear.”
Northam defended his decision not to activate the Virginia National Guard or declare a state of emergency.
He said the issue facing state crews was not a lack of manpower but the difficulty of getting workers and equipment through the snow and ice to where they needed to be. And he said a state of emergency, which would typically be declared hours or days before an event to create extra flexibility in responding, would have done no good.
