Winter Problems In New York

Winter caused serious problems on a western New York highway on Thursday. An accident blocked the road and made the trucks and cars to get stuck in the heavy snow. Among them, hundreds of cold and hungry motorists who spent several hours on the highway. It all started on Wednesday, when a storm comming from Lake Erie hit Bufallo, covering some of the cityʼs suburbs with snow, which got even two feet high. Tens of schools canceled their classes, while the police closed Interstate 90.

The bad weather caused a truck to jackknife on Wednesday evening, blocking the traffic and burying the other cars in the snow. The column of cars was stretching over more than three miles. Authorities reopend parts of the New York Thruway, as the I-90 is also called, the next day, but some 11 miles remained closed as the night fell, officials hoping to clear the road in a few hours.

Among those who got stuck in the snow was Jack Geiselman, who spent more than half a day freezing in the 32-degree cold. He was driving from Kenee, New York, to Cleveleand to help his daughter get ready for the birth of her child, due sometime between Christmas and New Year, when his car was burried in snow. Fortunatelly he was lucky enough to have a sleeping bag and warm clothes, as well as enough gas. But state troopers also brought warm cofee and foor to those stuck in their cars, while emergency crews on ATVs distributed water and protein bars.

Other were more courageous. For example, two truck drivers got bored of waiting in their cars and walked half a mile through the snow just to eat a breakfast sandwich and drink a cofee off the highway. And some other truckers left the road and took refuge at truck stops, parking lots and city streets, but most of them kept their rigs parked on the highway. Fortunatelly, no medical emergencies were reported during the blockade.

Authorities placed driving restrictions in southern Buffalo and suburban Cheektowaga, Depew, Lancaster and West Seneca. Meteorologists issued a snow warning untill Thursday night, afterwards the storm being expected to head south. But smaller amounts of snow were forecasted to fall on Friday. But snow was not the only problem. In southern New York a heavy rain caused a flood that affected almost a 100 homes, forcing the aurhorities to opened two emergency shelters.