Lessons learned from a 2018 snow event near Bristol were not applied by Virginia leaders before the disaster on Interstate 95 in the Fredericksburg area earlier this year.
This is according to an independent review from the Virginia Office of the Inspector General dated Aug. 11, which also details how the Virginia Department of Emergency Management has emergency plans for responses to natural disasters, but none of those plans were snow event-specific prior to the Jan. 3-4 incident, which left hundreds of motorists stranded on a 50-mile stretch of I-95 in Northern Virginia.
In a letter to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, whose congressional district represents the Fredericksburg area, asked for more information about how the Commonwealth will improve its preparations for severe weather in light of recommendations made by the After Action Report and the recent audit from the Virginia Inspector General.
“The audit presents a critical review of our Commonwealth’s preparation and response,” Spanberger wrote to Youngkin, who, it must be pointed out, was not governor during the Fredericksburg snow debacle – that would have been Youngkin’s predecessor, Ralph Northam.
“It is vital that we never again see a repeat of the circumstances that clogged a critical transportation artery, left Virginians – young and old – stranded without food and medication in their vehicles for more than 24 hours, and demonstrated a vulnerability to our Commonwealth’s and nation’s security. Preventing a repeat of these horrible circumstances requires intense oversight by your administration,” Youngkin said.
The winter storm that hit Virginia on Jan. 3 dropped 12+ inches in the Fredericksburg area at the epicenter of the traffic snarl.
Snowfall rates in the Fredericksburg area during the storm reached an historic 3 inches per hour. Many commercial vehicles had challenges climbing hills on I-95, disabling large trucks, stopping traffic flow and blocking routes for snowplows and towing vehicles.
With the record snowfall rates, the snow accumulation further disabled vehicles and impeded response efforts. Power outages impacted cell towers and traffic cameras making communications with those conducting response efforts difficult.
A big part of the problem was the widespread demand for state resources. Extreme challenges were encountered on other major roadways in the Commonwealth, including Interstate 64, Interstate 81, Route 1, Route 3 and Route 301 during this storm, putting a strain on VDOT’s 4,000 staff members and 18,600 contractors who work to clear the roads during winter storms.
In addition to impairing Virginia’s roadways, snow, ice and downed trees caused serious service disruptions to Amtrak routes. Amtrak, CSX and Norfolk Southern worked to get trains to the nearest available station while clearing more than 1,200 trees from tracks statewide.
“I am deeply concerned by the newly-released IG audit, which takes a very critical view of the Commonwealth’s level of preparation in advance of that early January storm, our current level of preparedness were we to face similar circumstances in the coming winter months, and our state agencies’ history of not implementing fulsome process improvements after serious events such as the December 2018 I-81 shutdown,” Spanberger said.
“While neither of these interstate shutdowns occurred during your administration, it now falls to your administration to ensure that the Virginia Department of Transportation, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and other associated agencies implement the recommendations of previous after-action reports once and for all,” Spanberger said.
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Chris Graham
