martha: so traffic is moving again on i-95 in virginia after hundreds of drivers were stranded. it started when tractor trailers jackknifed causing a chain reaction crash. people had no water, no food. they had been there for 24 hours. it s hard. you re trying to stay warm. but you re running out of gas. it s freezing out here. a total standstill. unclear why they couldn t get them water and food. katie is live. hi, martha. water outside of a wawa gas station near cardinal road. some of the drivers were able to get off after being stranded for hours. you can see the gas station is busy. workers say they were slammed for hours. on the other side, cars are still stuck in traffic.
soil by water and whether or not that was a contributing factor. gradual settling because of erosion, sinking surfaces around here. coastal areas are dynamic areas. the land itself is constantly changing. when we build towns and cities and put up buildings, we want them to be static. we want them to sit there and be fine. these areas are dynamic. look at photographs in miami herald had days before this. an inspector down next to the building. he was talking about falling of the concrete. people talk about how much water could be found below this building, below the building next to it. sometimes they didn t know where it came from. sometimes from rain. maybe sometimes from the water outside. they just didn t know. these are very dynamic areas where the environment it is changing all the time.
with the boy scout leaders, and they got us to high ground. reporter: meanwhile, the water was rushing inside your house, and you were fearful for your life. the water was rushing in, and no matter what you do, you couldn t get out. reporter: yeah. his son joe, fortunately, you were here and able to come start pumping the water out. tell me about that. what we ve done so far, we ve been pumping for three days, still got some residual water outside, took out all the wars, the flooring, the kitchen, as you can see, everything is gone. nothing is really salvageable. we re trying to decontaminate the stuff with bleach and water mixes. reporter: you grew up in this house. this is my house. i still call this my house. reporter: can you believe how bad things got? no. this is a complete nightmare, it s unbelievable. reporter: can you put a price tag on it? no. all the mitt romneys we lost, pictures memories we lost, there s nothing we can do.
all right, this house now fully getting wet. what we should have done here earlier, didn t see this, but there s a fuse box right there. the breaker panel. before the water started coming in, we should have had the power off and wouldn t be risking electrocution. don t forget to sandbag those doors. it helps keep the water outside. obviously water is still coming in but you try to get rid of it as fast as you can of the it might stop a little bit of extra damage. the problem is and the big story is it s not the water you can see that hurts your house, it s the water you can t see. that s under your rug. you re not going to get that out with a shop vac. but the floods keep coming and it s time to let them wait and fill up this house. all right, the flood is over, you re fairly overwhelmed. the house is trashed and you realize you need to get this water out of the house before things start to grow. it s time to bring in the pros. flooding could happen to any of us, so keep these tips in