Raleigh couple stranded for 13 hours among thousands on I-95 in Virginia

It wasn't until almost 6 p.m. Tuesday that the Virginia Department of Transportation said that no one was left stranded in a 50-mile standstill along both directions of I-95 in the Fredericksburg, Va., area between Exits 104 and 152. By 8:45 p.m., authorities said the road had reopened.

Officials said thousands of drivers, including dozens of trucks, were stranded when blizzard conditions closed the interstate on Monday night. Some waited in vehicles for as long as 17 hours, according to reports.

According to transportation officials, the snow downed trees, making the route impassable and causing several accidents after a winter storm dumped more than 10 inches of snow in the area.

WRAL News learned on Tuesday that authorities are opening warming shelters for stranded drivers.

Some of those impacted were drivers heading to Raleigh.

"I think we're doing better than others right now," said Alyssa Kinney, who said at 7:30 a.m. she had been in the same place in northern Virginia for 13 hours with no movement.

Kinney said some cars tried to get off on an exit ramp but ended up back on I-95. Later, they found an alternate route through Charlottesville to get home.

She said she saw people abandoning their cars, likely because they ran out of gas or food.

"There are empty cars everywhere, we've seen quite a people take off walking," she added.

Eli Rosario, who lives in Massachusetts, described his experience while stopped at a I-95 rest area in Selma.

'Once we got north of Richmond, traffic just stopped," Rosario said. "We were stuck there for close to six hours."

"It was so bad, I couldn't get to the nearest exit for hours, but really I just tried to get to the first exit I could take."

At the Wegmans grocery store in Raleigh, the store was low on stock like bananas, avocados, meat and berries as delivery trucks were late due to the the shutdown.

Erik Detwiler of Cary is a friend of WRAL reporter Bryan Mims. Detwiler left New Hampshire at 6 a.m. and expected to get back home Monday around 11 p.m. He finally got back around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday and went straight to bed.

No injuries were reported.

Drivers were tweeting messages to help each other. One truck driver reminded everyone that truckers often carry extra snacks and drinks and encouraged people in need of food or water to ask the trucks around them for help.