Back in January 2022, the first major snowstorm during the 2021-2022 snow season traveled across the Commonwealth. Shortly after temperatures dropped, the snow and slush quickly turned into ice. As a result that brought I-95 to a stop.
Hundreds of drivers were left stranded for hours along I-95 during the severe snowstorm. The fiasco prompted a wave of criticism about the state's response to the snowy gridlockand lack of preparation ahead of time.
“This storm came at a time when many new snow removal contractors and employees were coming on board with the Virginia Department of Transportation and had not undergone the typical training provided prior to COVID-19,” said State Inspector General Michael C. Westfall. “When the storm intensified and traffic slowed due to disabled vehicles, including jackknifed tractor trailers, the resulting traffic backed up significantly and impacted VDOT’s ability to clear the roadway as plows could not remove the accumulating snow.”
According to the release, in an audit, the Office of the State Inspector General found out that the Commonwealth didn't learn from a previous incident in December near Bristol. This incident resulted in a VDOT action report that suggested recommendations to prevent the 2022 storm on I-95.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management has standard (all hazard) emergency plans for natural disasters, but no snow event hazard planning for the Commonwealth has been in action.
Communication with the public was not effective as shown by the traffic that continued through I-95 in the Fredricksburg area.
Furthermore, communications to the public were not effective as demonstrated by the traffic.
“Either the public received messages to avoid the area and ignored them or they did not receive the messages,” added Westfall.
OSIG officials say to improve on applying lessons learned, snow-disaster and recovery exercise training across the state should be implemented to improve communication.
It is recommended that VDEM should enable communication training for all agencies involved.
