5 dead, hundreds stranded in winter storm

Five people were reported dead and hundreds of others were stranded after a snowstorm pummeled the South and Mid-Atlantic regions. 

In Townsend, Tenn., which is located outside of Knoxville, a 7-year-old girl died after heavy snow caused a tree to fall on a vacation rental property where her family was staying, according to NBC News.

A 5-year-old boy was also killed in DeKalb County, Georgia, following high winds and heavy rains that led to a tree falling on his home.

“We have been receiving a lot of rain over the last week or so, and the ground is just soft, and with the high winds, it’s just a recipe for trees being downed,” DeKalb County Fire Rescue Capt. Jaeson Daniels told an NBC affiliate.

Three deaths were reported in suburban Washington, D.C., following an accident in which a SUV collided with a snowplow in Montgomery County, Md., USA Today reported.

Monday’s winter storm, which was the largest Mid-Atlantic snow storm since 2019, also left hundreds of people stranded on highways and at airports in the region.

Over half of the flights scheduled for Monday out of the Washington, D.C., area’s three major airports were either canceled or delayed. New York’s major airports also reported that a quarter of their flights were canceled or delayed due to the weather, according to USA Today.

In Virginia, traffic came to a standstill in the aftermath of the snow storm. Some drivers, according to WUSA 9, were stranded on I-95 south of Washington, D.C., for over 10 hours with the highway shut down in both directions.

As of Tuesday morning, snow plows and trucks have been deployed to the scene. Authorities have said that they are planning to use every available exit to get stranded drivers off of the interstate highway, according to WUSA 9.

–Updated at 9:47 a.m.