Winter storm and heavy snow blanket U.S. CapitolA winter storm is blanketing streets in and around the nation’s capital, closing government offices and schools and grounding the president’s helicopter. (Jan. 3)APIce and snow stranded scores of drivers on Interstate 95 in Virginia into Tuesday morning after a winter storm pounded the mid-Atlantic and dumped more than a foot of snow in some places.The storm brought havoc to roadways, left more than 300,000 without power in Virginia and Maryland and caused at least five deaths across three states.On a roughly 50-mile stretch of I-95 near Fredericksburg, drivers were stuck in their cars overnight with ice blanketing the freeway and cars at a standstill. The Virginia Department of Transportation tweeted after 5 a.m. Tuesday that the stretch of the interstate remained closed.Marcie Parker, the department’s Fredericksburg District Engineer, said in a statement Tuesday that crews were continuing to treat patches of snow and ice with up to several inches of accumulation. “We know many travelers have been stuck on Interstate 95 in our region for extraordinary periods of time over the past 24 hours, in some cases since Monday morning. This is unprecedented, and we continue to steadily move stopped trucks to make progress toward restoring lanes,” Parker said.Late Monday, the agency shared a photo of the traffic jam with the caption, “We wish we had a timetable, ETA or an educated guess on when travel will resume on I-95. It’s at a standstill in our area with multiple incidents. Its frustrating & scary.”We wish we had a timetable, ETA or an educated guess on when travel will resume on I-95. It’s at a standstill in our area with multiple incidents. Its frustrating & scary. Please know our crews don’t stop. Crews will work 24/7 until ALL state-maintained roads are safe for travel pic.twitter.com/HdAWTDEJ22— VDOT Fredericksburg (@VaDOTFRED) January 4, 2022The Virginia Department of Transportation and Gov. Ralph Northam’s office did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for further comment.Josh Lederman, a reporter with NBC News, tweeted that he was stuck in his car overnight and many motorists were turning off their cars to conserve gas.”People (myself included) are taking exercise breaks outside their cars, walking their dogs on the interstate. I’ve been putting snow in his bowl and letting it melt into water,” he said in one tweet detailing the ordeal.Lederman said around 6:45 a.m. that northbound cars began moving but southbound remained stuck.The winter storm blanketed parts of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Kentucky.Schools across multiple states remained closed Tuesday, and some 279,000 customers in Virginia and 27,000 in Maryland were without power as of 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to the online tracker Poweroutage.us.Snowfall totals in the Washington, D.C., area were around to half a foot to a foot, according to the National Weather Service.More than 15 inches of snow fell in Huntingtown, Maryland, the highest total in the state, around 40 miles southeast of Washington. Glendie, just north of Fredericksburg, recorded more than 14 inches of snow, the highest total in Virginia, according to the Weather Service.Five deaths were reported due to the weather. A 7-year-old girl died after heavy snow led to a tree falling on a home in Townsend, Tennessee, about 30 miles southeast of Knoxville, WVLT reported. A second child, a 5-year-old boy in Georgia, was killed after heavy rain and strong wind gusts caused a tree to fall on a home near Atlanta in DeKalb County, according to CBS 46. Three more people died when an SUV and snowplow collided in Montgomery County, Maryland, NBC reported.Virginia State Police responded to 2,000 calls for service by Monday afternoon, the agency tweeted. In Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a snow emergency on Monday and advised residents to stay home. President Joe Biden, who was returning to the White House from Delaware, had his helicopter grounded by snow and traveled by motorcade from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.Contributing: Doyle Rice and Christal Hayes, USA TODAY; The Associated Press