popular mobile phones in the world, the end of an era for the iconic blackberry. good evening, everyone yesterday s snowstorm has come and gone, but its paralyzing impact leaving thousands anxious to make it home after spending the night stranded in cars on a virginia interstate many spending upwards of 20 hours stuck. hungry, thirsty, low on gas, and in the cold on one of the most vital thoroughfares. among them, u.s. senator tim kaine, whose two-hour drive turned into a marathon i have been on the road for 27 hours, he tweeted this afternoon. accidents and poor road conditions bringing a 50-mile stretch of i-95 outside of d.c. to a virtual halt. tonight, crews unraveling the mess, but plenty more obstacles lie ahead. tom costello has late details. reporter: an epic
because it started as a rain event the rain would have washed away the treatment. then the snow came in hard and built up quickly. road crews tried to keep up. they were quickly overwhelmed. then they had downed trees, abandoned cars, wrecked cars the thing simply got out of control by the way, senator kaine finally made it to washington late this afternoon lester we hope the same for some folks who spent tough hours on the road thank you, tom now to staggering covid numbers, daily cases surpassing 1 million in the midst of that critical shortage of covid tests. what happened to the free at-home tests president biden promised americans would have by now? our peter alexander has more from the white house. reporter: tonight, another covid record setter more than a million new infections reported nationwide in just 24 hours though some of it likely due to holiday backlog. nearly 1 in 100 americans now testing positive in the last week hospitalizations up 41% in two weeks president
traffic disaster playing out over the last 36 hours in virginia thousands of cars brought to a standstill by that massive storm dropping a foot of snow on the d.c. region. overwhelming road crews and trapping thousands of people, the elderly, kids, and pets in cars it started last night. a sea of static red taillights in freezing temps. by morning, through most of the day, they barely budged. overhead, nbc washington s news chopper. some folks stuck in their vehicles overnight with little food or water. reporter: and no restrooms. the affected highway, a 50-mile stretch of i-95 from caroline county, virginia to, dumfrees with few off ramps, drivers had no escape. even side roads are clogged. we have little kids, and we re doing the best we can, but of course there s other people that need assistance more than we do. reporter: among