On Tuesday morning, a traffic jam on I-95 in Virginia, had been impacting drivers for the better part of 24 hours. One of those drivers was NBC News’ Josh Lederman, who called into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to describe what it was like to be stuck in his car for 10 hours.
“This has been a pretty insane and fairly dystopian experience. I was headed back to D.C. last night. GPS said I’d get back around 5:15. At about 7:15, with several delays, it was looking pretty bad on the roads and by 7:30 we were just at a standstill and have been at a standstill ever since,” the correspondent said, adding he could see “thousands” of cars from his vantage point.
Lederman, who covers the White House and national security for NBC News, pointed out that many of those he was trapped with overnight might not have had food or water. He also said he hadn’t seen any emergency vehicles since before midnight Monday, but had seen people taking their dogs and kids out for walks.
“It’s been 26 degrees outside and nobody knows how long we’re going to be here or how we’re going to get out. So people — once it got into about five hours that people were stuck in their cars — started turning their cars off,” he said.
The culprit, as he pointed out, was winter weather that hit the area around the nation’s capital. He is far from the only person who works in D.C. who has been impacted, of course, but some of those stuck in the gridlock have a bigger platform than others. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, for instance, tweeted that he, too, was held up.
“I started my normal 2 hour drive to DC at 1pm yesterday. 19 hours later, I’m still not near the Capitol. My office is in touch with @VaDOT to see how we can help other Virginians in this situation. Please stay safe everyone,” Kaine wrote, adding a photo to show that he was surrounded by trucks.