Hundreds Stranded As Snowstorm Socks Interstate

[CaptinCrunch]

YREKA, Calif. (Dec. 29) - A fierce snowstorm closed nearly 150 miles of Interstate 5 in California and Oregon on Monday and stranded hundreds of travelers, police said. Some people had been stuck since Sunday evening.

There was no estimate when crews would be able to get to the people stalled between Redding and Medford, Ore., said Jennifer Bryan, a dispatcher for the California Highway Patrol.

"We can't move them, we can't get to them," said Bryan. "Don't try to come up here."

Visibility was down to 25 feet in the steady, blowing snow, and crews trying to clear the highway were stymied by drifting.

"Once the plow gets it, it gets blocked again," said Bryan. In some areas snowdrifts were as high as five feet.

The Oregon State Police said so many vehicles had spun out of control that it was difficult to calculate how many accidents had occurred.

Oregon State Police and Jackson County, Ore., sheriff's officers spent Monday morning using snowmobiles to shuttle food and water to stranded motorists.

No major accidents were reported, but in one instance a civilian in a four-wheel-drive vehicle rescued three people with medical problems, Bryan said.

"That weather out there is really scary," said Rosada Sarah Schwaab of Spokane, Ore., whose family decided to spend the night at a lodge south of Ashland, Ore.

She said her family got the last available room. "There were some other stranded motorists here, and we were telling them that their children would be welcome to stay with us if they needed a place to sleep," said Schwaab.

Sandra Palmer, manager of the Amerihost Inn in Yreka, said she had to walk a mile in 3 feet of snow to reach work before dawn Monday because she couldn't get her car out of her garage.

"It took me an hour and a half to get to work," she said. "It's horrible when you're walking in the snow."

The storm also piled heavy snow from northern California across northern Nevada. Tire chains were mandatory on highways crossing the Sierra Nevada.

Another storm is expected to hit on New Year's Day.

[Anonymous]

This folks is what I call beautiful weather. This is what I live for in the winter. Other people will die in it; they should move south to Barbados, I THRIVE in these conditions. This stuff is what I live for in winter. Most people would be belly up dead while I would be walking around, enjoying a subzero, 50 to 60 mph windblown jebwalk and fervently praying for much worse.

Its this crap we have to put up with here in the east with this dumb SE Ridge nonsense that's bad for me.
Twenty-five foot visibility in blowing snow. Thats HEAVEN for me!!!! This 62 degree bull that I have here is what's for the birds.

That lady that complained that she had to walk a mile and a half in 3 feet of snow should move to Jamaica. Man I would give half a year's salary just to have the privilege of walking in 3 feet of snow!!!!! I wish I was in 3 feet of snow and we were getting 4 more feet!!! I never have enough snow, even when it is life-threatening!!!

-JEB

[wxnut]

This folks is what I call beautiful weather. This is what I live for in the winter. Other people will die in it; they should move south to Barbados, I THRIVE in these conditions. This stuff is what I live for in winter. Most people would be belly up dead while I would be walking around, enjoying a subzero, 50 to 60 mph windblown jebwalk and fervently praying for much worse.

Its this crap we have to put up with here in the east with this dumb SE Ridge nonsense that's bad for me.
Twenty-five foot visibility in blowing snow. Thats HEAVEN for me!!!! This 62 degree bull that I have here is what's for the birds.

That lady that complained that she had to walk a mile and a half in 3 feet of snow should move to Jamaica. Man I would give half a year's salary just to have the privilege of walking in 3 feet of snow!!!!! I wish I was in 3 feet of snow and we were getting 4 more feet!!! I never have enough snow, even when it is life-threatening!!!

-JEB

You say that now, but have you ever been in the conditions you wish for? Conditions like those you wish for ARE deadly. I drive many miles on the interstates for a living. I personally would NOT want to be in those conditions. I want to come home to my family, and my family want's me to come home to THEM. You are wishing for things that take MANY lives, mothers and fathers from children, husbands from wives, wives from husbands. If you lost one or more of YOUR loved ones to a severe storm, you probably wouldn't wish for them anymore. In fact you'd probably hate them.

And as for the lady you said should move to Jamaica, well, she might say that if you want 60 below zero wind chills and 4 feet of blinding snow than move to Siberia, or the Yukon.

[Anonymous]

This folks is what I call beautiful weather. This is what I live for in the winter. Other people will die in it; they should move south to Barbados, I THRIVE in these conditions. This stuff is what I live for in winter. Most people would be belly up dead while I would be walking around, enjoying a subzero, 50 to 60 mph windblown jebwalk and fervently praying for much worse.

Its this crap we have to put up with here in the east with this dumb SE Ridge nonsense that's bad for me.
Twenty-five foot visibility in blowing snow. Thats HEAVEN for me!!!! This 62 degree bull that I have here is what's for the birds.

That lady that complained that she had to walk a mile and a half in 3 feet of snow should move to Jamaica. Man I would give half a year's salary just to have the privilege of walking in 3 feet of snow!!!!! I wish I was in 3 feet of snow and we were getting 4 more feet!!! I never have enough snow, even when it is life-threatening!!!

-JEB

You say that now, but have you ever been in the conditions you wish for? Conditions like those you wish for ARE deadly. I drive many miles on the interstates for a living. I personally would NOT want to be in those conditions. I want to come home to my family, and my family want's me to come home to THEM. You are wishing for things that take MANY lives, mothers and fathers from children, husbands from wives, wives from husbands. If you lost one or more of YOUR loved ones to a severe storm, you probably wouldn't wish for them anymore. In fact you'd probably hate them.

And as for the lady you said should move to Jamaica, well, she might say that if you want 60 below zero wind chills and 4 feet of blinding snow than move to Siberia, or the Yukon.

I can't help it, I really LOVE snow, especially extremely DEEP snow, tall snowdrifts, severe cold and one of the reasons I want that HERE in N VA where I live is because I KNOW Virginia can't handle it. I would LOVE to have to wait two whole fun-filled weeks for a plow, only to have the plow plow me in under a fifteen foot tall, ten foot wide huge, compacted mountain of snow.

This obsessive attitude about snow is one of the greatest reasons that I shall NEVER get married. There are two things I care about more than anything else in this world: Extreme Snow and it's toll on Mankind, and extreme beachwalking, which I call jebwalks. Those two items are what drive me and I care for absolutely nothing else.

To me, EVERYTHING else in life pales beside extremely deep, severely drifted snow and walking around looking at it blowing around in a 50mph wind (with goggles on) and all the while blasting Christian music at near full blast on my CD headphones. I do that at the beach too. Snow is so very aesthetic and I can't get enough of it. I love to shovel it no matter what.

To me, one of God's greatest blessings is when we get 3 feet of snow here in Virginia where no one is prepared for it. Oh the drama! The long wait for the plow!! The spectacle of people having only one lane to drive in, and the snow walls on either side of the road that make driving such a healthy challenge! But the very sweetest thing of all, is to go outside in a 50mph frigid wind and spend hours and hours shoveling three feet of snow, with 15 foot drifts, off of my patio, walk, driveway, and from around our three vehicles, only to have the snow drift all my work completely over and drift more fifteen-foot drifts back over my patio, walk, driveway, sidewalk and over our three cars, and then I get to go back outside and savor many more shovelfuls of snow!!!!!

The aesthetics of snow absolutely overpower everything else in my life in the winter. I pray long and hard for severe winter storms, then for record frigid cold and for 30 to 50 mph NE winds with gusts to 60mph that will drift the snow!!! There is nothing so very beautiful on Earth, than watching the wind blow snow along a road! There is nothing so very joyful, than watching that temperature fall all DAY long!!!! It is a wonder of nature, and a joyful one at that, to watch the temps fall through the single digits, to zero, then into the negative single digits!!!!

Have you ever had the awesome privilege to walk in a plowed shopping mall parking lot where three feet of snow have fallen? The piles of plowed snow are so excellent!!! I would love to see 35 foot tall piled up RIDGES of plowed snow!!!! The utter beauty of it all!!! I would be lovingly taking pictures of the huge piles of snow, then get them developed on a CD and get those puppies on the web!!! I would SAVOR those pics for the rest of my natural life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those people in the Sierras got over 6 feet of snow! They are so lucky!! I would love to walk in three feet of precious white snow, with 12 foot drifts!!! I would be beside myself with JOY!!! I would be taking jebwalks about ten times a day, when I wasn't happily shoveling the snow, taking care to savor each shovelful!!!!!!!!!

Bring that snow on!!!! Let it happen to Dale City/Woodbridge, Virginia!!!!

I would be in Heaven!!!!! I would shovel it ALL!!!!!!!

You would NEVER hear me complain about too much snow!!!!!!!!!!! I would be complaining about it getting to warm and melting all my precious snow!!


SNOW BLITZ JEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BRING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rick-g]

I have always had a problem with people who want tons of snow, without regard to the toll it takes on everyone, but I had an insight: Since we don't control the weather, we don't cause 3 foot snow fall amounts (at least directly) so Yes, I love to see a big snowfall, but I don't want to see anyone suffer because of it.

IT is the same reason we love to see tornados, earthquakes, and thunderstorms. we can't control them, but we can admire them.

[Anonymous]

I hate hurricanes because Izzy devastated my beloved Outer Banks last September. Yet, folks want to experience 'canes.

Canes and excessive snow kill people. It's a fact of life. But hurricanes don't just kill people, they destroy homes, businesses, and beaches. They erode beaches, they cause immense storm surges, they dump immense amounts of tropical rain and cause major floods.

Blizzards kill people by exposure to cold and through road and air accidents. But, although heavy snow can collapse roofs, it doesn't destroy property on the grand scale that tropical cyclones do. I can get 3 feet of snow here in N VA, and shovel off my roof and my neighbor's roofs as the snow falls, and no harm done. Stay off the roads til they are cleared well, and about 10 days after the blizzard, all's well.

After a cane like Izzy, folks down in the OBX are still cleaning up from that storm. Hell, it was a fast-mover and only a Cat 2, a weak one at that!!! It moved fast!! The flooding was minimal, yet people are still cleaning up after it. But some people still want to experience hurricanes. Now THATS something I can not ever understand.

That's why I like snow blizzards. I can manage them a lot easier than I can deal with hurricanes. A strong cane can level your house and you are screwed. Snow can be shoveled off the roof and no harm done.

That's why I pray for extremely severe blizzards, but hate hurricanes.

I will always have it made in the snow.

I want 3 feet of snow here in Woodbridge/Dale City, Virginia so I can shovel the snow and admire all the piles of snow. No one's home will be blown away and there won't be any flooding. No beaches will be wiped off the face of the Earth. People won't still be cleaning up 5 months later after my beloved 3 foot blizzard.

BRING ON THE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


SNOW BLITZ JEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!