'Sleeping on the interstate': Hundreds stranded in Kentucky
LEXINGTON,
Ky. (AP) -- What was supposed to be a relaxing weekend in
Tennessee for Alexx and Kate Bragg turned into a grueling night of
frozen gridlock along one of the country's busiest interstate highways.
Hundreds
of drivers were stuck on I-75 overnight after a massive winter storm
dumped more than a foot of snow in south central Kentucky, clogging cars
and causing multiple crashes that created a 30-mile stretch of
shivering passengers. By Saturday afternoon, I-75 was no longer closed,
with lanes open both northbound and southbound. Traffic was moving -
albeit slowly, and officials expected it to stay that way for a while.
State police Trooper Lloyd Cochran said he couldn't give a figure for
number of cars or people affected by the standstill but noted that no
injuries were reported.
Kate Bragg was one of
the stuck motorists, spending most of the night at mile marker 59
between Livingston and Mount Vernon. She and her husband, Alexx, are
from Indiana and were on their way to Tennessee for a getaway weekend
when they got stuck. For hours, the only people they saw were salt truck
drivers begging motorists to move over so they could exit, refuel and
hopefully help clear the roads. At one point, Alexx Bragg tucked in
behind a salt truck and followed it on the shoulder, only to get stuck
again.
"We are worried because we are from
Indiana, have no concept of where we are and no idea when to anticipate
getting out," Bragg told The Associated Press in an electronic message
using Twitter.
Kentucky officials set up
shelters for stranded motorists at churches and public schools along the
Interstate, but the Braggs were too far away and could not make it to
them.
"Emotional breaking point coupled with
exhaustion has been met," Kate Bragg tweeted just after 11 p.m. after
spending about eight hours on the highway, later adding: "Sleeping on
the interstate... Don't they normally caution against this?"
Kate
Bragg posted on Twitter that the couple finally got off the interstate
at about 2:30 a.m., using online mapping services to find a way around
the clogged interstate using side roads that had been plowed.
Traffic
was slowly moving slowly Saturday along the 30-mile stretch, from Berea
to London, according to Buddy Rogers, spokesman for Kentucky Emergency
Management. All local hotels were booked, Cochran said. He described
people still stuck on the road, some milling about at exits or leaving
their cars to seek out the few stores and restaurants nearby.
About
65 people had taken shelter at the West London Baptist Church Saturday
morning, according to Amanda Shotton, disaster program manager for the
American Red Cross in Kentucky. She said local grocery stores and
restaurants provided food for firefighters to take to stranded motorists
who couldn't reach shelter.
Mariclare
Lafferty and her family were on their way home to Hamburg, New York,
when they stopped at a hotel in Knoxville to avoid the storm. But they
had no heat after their hotel lost power, so they got back on the
interstate, only to get stuck for five hours.
"I
was very scared, very nervous," she said. "They don't plow their roads
in Kentucky. We're from Buffalo, and we're used to a plow going down the
road every 20 minutes. We're just not used to this here."
Lafferty
said she and her family have been at the West London Baptist Church
shelter since about 2 a.m. and plan to stay there for most of the day.
"They're treating us very well, but we're very tired," she said.
This
is the second time in less than a year Kentucky drivers have seen major
delays because of snow. Last March, thousands of drivers were stuck on
I-65 in western Kentucky, some for up to 24 hours, after two feet of
snow fell over several days.
