I-95 snow storm disaster

[Goofyernmost]

Been there many more times than I could count. I'm in Maine and I agree our winter storms, blizzards and ice storms are nothing compared to what they call major snow storms down south. We are prepared for those yearly conditions and expect the worst. The worst I had it was the major ice storm years ago that had us out of power for weeks and some people for a month. Power lines down, poles snapped, electrical boxes torn off the sides of houses, homes flooded from frozen pipes.. that was a disaster.
But as minor in comparison to that, the VA incident is/ was called a disaster by many. Especially when the Gov. and others in control should have acted immediately. The stranded and crashed vehicles could have been cleared out easily by calling out the National Guard with their heavy equipment and get a passable road. Inaction caused many people great distress. Ive sat in a broken down car, stranded on a roadway in a below zero snow/ice storm for a night. It was not a simple inconvenience. When you are unable to get help...no food, no heat, no gas, no way out.... its a disaster. Many of those caught on that roadway were elderly, sickly, totally unprepared, with young children and its fortunate many didnt get frostbite or worse. So yes it wasnt as bad as it could have been but for those who had to sit through it... they werent saying it was an inconvenience.

I will agree that to them it was, what I am more concerned about is the feeling that more could have been done. You can call the guard out the instant it happened but in order to be useful they first have to get there. Calling them out, is not an instant fix. They were having to travel from home to the location of the useful equipment on the same roads that those trapped vehicles were stopped on. I don't know exactly how much of a delay there was, but I do know that the problem ran for about 10 or more miles in both directions.

If they had been on the highway instantly they had to work their way back for a long distance both directions. How much snow removal equipment would one expect they have available in an area this doesn't usually have that much snow to deal with. Along with asking the question, do we take what equipment we have and move them back to the location of the problem or keep the rest of the highway clear so as not to have a duplicate problem.

My guess is that it is limited and no matter how big the guard unit is you cannot clear a highway with a tank. Since you are familiar as I am with how snow is handled in the north know that no matter how much experience and equipment we have available it takes people to operate them and they have to be able to get there themselves. We weren't always able to respond that quickly but we didn't have the traffic numbers that are in that area. I just am not one that can honestly feel that what came down was avoidable. Sometimes that time it takes to get things in action can be thought that it can happen at the snap of the fingers. That's what we'd like to think but that is not what reality is.

 

[ShookieJones]

I Am honestly stunned at the lack of travel issues / mishaps I’ve had in all my trips to WDW. Thankfully only once before a planned trip to WDW one of the major hurricanes was rolling in and we were torn on the possibility of losing a couple days of vacation time or worse and decided the night before to cancel our trip. Thinking back I have a tinge of regret as Orlando wasn’t hit very hard and I believe the park was only down for a day and the rest of the time the parks were completely empty. First world problems for sure and at the end of the day better safe than sorry.

For the record, we ended up going twice the following year to make up for it.

 

[MickeyCB]

When I posted above of our overnight stranding I forgot about 2 other times we had trouble flying, these times were to Orlando not from there. Both were Southwest.
The first one, we were already at the Pittsburgh airport priding ourselves on being timely and eating breakfast when I got an email that our flight was cancelled!! I left my husband with our bags and ran to the gate where there was a line forming all the way into the concourse.
I walked right past that to the next gate up to the customer service rep and she looked up and said, "let me guess, your flight is cancelled?!" She told me that there were severe storms in Orlando and the planes weren't able to fly in.

She said let me see how I can help you. She started to book me on the next flight 7pm (it's currently about 11 am when all of this is going on) and then I looked up behind her and her flight was going to Tampa!
I said do you have any seats on your plane, because we'll just rent a car and drive up from there. She told me to hurry up and check if I could get a car because everyone and their brother was doing the same thing. I got us a car rented, we got on that flight in about an hour, landed in Tampa walked right out to our car and drove up to Orlando. We dropped the car at MCO and rode the ME back to the Poly.
I checked later and that 7pm flight didn't leave Pittsburgh till 11pm!! We were already snuggly tucked into our Poly beds!
That day actually turned into a fun one. By the end of the day we had ridden in a car, plane, bus, 2 forms of airport ground transportation, Disney's monorail and even went over to Riverside and rode a boat to DS!!

The second one was similar. We were standing at the numbered poles at the Southwest gate getting ready to board our 10 am flight when they announced something was wrong with the plane. I'll be just a few minutes they said. A few minutes later we hear they have to fly a part in from Michigan. Once again I headed to another customer service lady with no line and she got us on a flight 2 hours from then. Our first flight didn't leave Pittsburgh till around 7pm.

 

[JIMINYCR]

I Am honestly stunned at the lack of travel issues / mishaps I’ve had in all my trips to WDW. Thankfully only once before a planned trip to WDW one of the major hurricanes was rolling in and we were torn on the possibility of losing a couple days of vacation time or worse and decided the night before to cancel our trip. Thinking back I have a tinge of regret as Orlando wasn’t hit very hard and I believe the park was only down for a day and the rest of the time the parks were completely empty. First world problems for sure and at the end of the day better safe than sorry.

For the record, we ended up going twice the following year to make up for it.

Same here. I’ve had more flat tires and break downs driving in my home area and fortunate to have no issues on our many many drives to FL. We’ve had some close calls with crazy drivers almost hitting us swerving back and forth cutting through lanes but never had an accident. Hope the good luck stays with us both. ( Knocking on wood, crossing fingers , rubbing a rabbits foot and carrying a)

 

[Michaelson]

Several years ago during a February trip we were renting a house outside of WDW and were literally loaded in the car and heading down the road when my wife's sister called and told us to rethink our departure. Apparently a HUGE ice storm had descended on our State, and getting home would be iffy if best.

Fortunately the property management folks were able to extend our stay at the rental house a couple more days, and we literally pulled right back into the driveway and unloaded the car.

It took the full two extra days for them to clear the roads for us to get home....but we enjoyed a couple more days of rest after spending 10 days at the park.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[JIMINYCR]

Several years ago during a February trip we were renting a house outside of WDW and were literally loaded in the car and heading down the road when my wife's sister called and told us to rethink our departure. Apparently a HUGE ice storm had descended on our State, and getting home would be iffy if best.

Fortunately the property management folks were able to extend our stay at the rental house a couple more days, and we literally pulled right back into the driveway and unloaded the car.

It took the full two extra days for them to clear the roads for us to get home....but we enjoyed a couple more days of rest after spending 10 days at the park.

Regards! Michaelson

I'd gladly drive in a snow storm vs an ice storm. Glad you didnt chance it!!!

 

[JIMINYCR]

When I posted above of our overnight stranding I forgot about 2 other times we had trouble flying, these times were to Orlando not from there. Both were Southwest.
The first one, we were already at the Pittsburgh airport priding ourselves on being timely and eating breakfast when I got an email that our flight was cancelled!! I left my husband with our bags and ran to the gate where there was a line forming all the way into the concourse.
I walked right past that to the next gate up to the customer service rep and she looked up and said, "let me guess, your flight is cancelled?!" She told me that there were severe storms in Orlando and the planes weren't able to fly in.

She said let me see how I can help you. She started to book me on the next flight 7pm (it's currently about 11 am when all of this is going on) and then I looked up behind her and her flight was going to Tampa!
I said do you have any seats on your plane, because we'll just rent a car and drive up from there. She told me to hurry up and check if I could get a car because everyone and their brother was doing the same thing. I got us a car rented, we got on that flight in about an hour, landed in Tampa walked right out to our car and drove up to Orlando. We dropped the car at MCO and rode the ME back to the Poly.
I checked later and that 7pm flight didn't leave Pittsburgh till 11pm!! We were already snuggly tucked into our Poly beds!
That day actually turned into a fun one. By the end of the day we had ridden in a car, plane, bus, 2 forms of airport ground transportation, Disney's monorail and even went over to Riverside and rode a boat to DS!!

The second one was similar. We were standing at the numbered poles at the Southwest gate getting ready to board our 10 am flight when they announced something was wrong with the plane. I'll be just a few minutes they said. A few minutes later we hear they have to fly a part in from Michigan. Once again I headed to another customer service lady with no line and she got us on a flight 2 hours from then. Our first flight didn't leave Pittsburgh till around 7pm.

Jeesh... the airlines are getting so unpredictable as to getting people up in the air on time. A customer of mine just had her flight cancelled because the sink in the planes bathroom wasnt working and they couldnt get it fixed til the next day.

 

[flynnibus]

I've had a transmission blow up in no-where GA that required towing to a dealer while we were gone and then taking a van taxi for about 75mins to jax to be able to rent a car to make it the rest of the way. All of this was after hours too...

I've had a wife misinterpret her flight... to turn into an immediate unexpected 16hr drive to FL

 

[Goofyernmost]

I'd gladly drive in a snow storm vs an ice storm. Glad you didnt chance it!!!

Ice is impossible. It's one thing to have it be a surprise and quite another to go out when you know it's there. That pure overconfidence.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Quite a few times actually. anyone who travels to WDW, really any time of year, but especially in winter should- more or less - consider it possible they might get stuck for an extra day or two. All of my strandings happened prior to the pandemic.

If you do NOT return a rental car, and you DO NOT check out of your hotel, you have some ability to negotiate a continuation at your current rate, though if you are stranded in Florida you might want to book something less expensive. It almost always pays to book online (or call ahead) to get a better rate.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I have run into many storms in my trips south. Never while headed or returning from Disney, but trust me I've driven in blizzards on the Jersey Turnpike so bad that I had to stop and clean off my headlights because the snow had managed to cover them down to about a 2 inch circle of light beaming through. One hasn't lived until you get stuck behind a grouping of cement trucks with plows, staggered across 6 lane of highway with the far left lane pushing snow into the next lane, being pushed into the next lane by the next lane and so on until the final one is pushing everything off as far as they can to the right. Many of those storms caused me to be delayed but never completely ended.

The Virginia deal was surely an inconvenience but can hardly be called a disaster. Those that think that it should have been a snap to clear up the whole mess have never experienced an actual "snowstorm". They've probably experienced one of those awe inducing Hallmark Card big, light snowflake type heart warming snowfalls. Nature doesn't care who you are or where you are going. It can be mean as hell. To my knowledge no one died or was injured and it just simply takes time. That corridor from DC to Fredericksburg is a nightmare in the best of weather. There is a lot of traffic on that section of I-95 at any given time. If anyone wants to be upset, be upset with nature. When nature decides to be a b****, we mere mortals can feel pretty helpless.

Many moons ago....my family was stranded in a similar situation, except it took days to clear out. By then, most cars were out of gas and stuck in the freezing cold. I don't recall all the specifics, but it was a dire situation. The National Guard had to come, and a few people died, though not near us.

In that case, it was so long ago, it was a different era. (long before cell phones, internet, cable news/weather, and news reporting was just nothing like it is today. The storm hit hard, and they didn't have the plowing/sanding capability to keep up back then.

We lucked out because...of all things, my family had baby food and - get this - some army rations! We ate what we had, and everyone wanted the baby food over the rations. We even shared some with others who were stranded near us. People also shared things like blankets if they had them to share.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Yup...been stuck several times. Got stuck when there was a blizzard back in Maryland in 2016. And then back when I was in high school we got stuck...because there was a hurricane in Maryland. I always just bring my work laptop with me whenever I travel in case I got stuck.

I was visiting family in SC and got stuck due to the snowstorm this week. They were starting to cancel flights out Sunday night, so I made the call to change our flight to Tuesday from Monday. All of the flights on Monday were cancelled. Our flight on Tuesday was the only flight that made it out of Charleston to BWI after being two hours late. Craziness. But that's winter travel.

 

[JIMINYCR]

I've had a transmission blow up in no-where GA that required towing to a dealer while we were gone and then taking a van taxi for about 75mins to jax to be able to rent a car to make it the rest of the way. All of this was after hours too...

I've had a wife misinterpret her flight... to turn into an immediate unexpected 16hr drive to FL

WOW... that must have been one costly trip. I once threw a rod on I-84 going through CT... on Christmas Eve night. Engine was trashed.

 

[flynnibus]

WOW... that must have been one costly trip. I once threw a rod on I-84 going through CT... on Christmas Eve night. Engine was trashed.

Hardest part was figuring out how to deal with it all late on a Saturday afternoon.. in the middle of nowhere... when we were getting on a cruise ship and then would be out of touch for an extended period.

Had to arrange the tow, an extended distance van taxi, and get a rental minivan on no notice at like 5pm on a saturday. Luckily it turned out very smooth once I got over the 'how the fq am I going to salvage this?'. My father masqueraded as me talking to the car dealer while we were away. I paid for the rental to stay at the port and luckily our van was fixed and ready by the time we got back. We drove the rental back to GA, picked up our van, then drove BACK to jax to return the rental, and then turn around and head back north to drive home

 

[GuyFawkes]

Hardest part was figuring out how to deal with it all late on a Saturday afternoon.. in the middle of nowhere... when we were getting on a cruise ship and then would be out of touch for an extended period.

Had to arrange the tow, an extended distance van taxi, and get a rental minivan on no notice at like 5pm on a saturday. Luckily it turned out very smooth once I got over the 'how the fq am I going to salvage this?'. My father masqueraded as me talking to the car dealer while we were away. I paid for the rental to stay at the port and luckily our van was fixed and ready by the time we got back. We drove the rental back to GA, picked up our van, then drove BACK to jax to return the rental, and then turn around and head back north to drive home

Did your van break on I-95 in southern GA? Not much out there. I know that section of road well, be ware of the sped trap about 15-20 miles from the FL boarder. Some little town is making speeding tickets their infrastructure improvement fund. LOL.

 

[flynnibus]

Did your van break on I-95 in southern GA? Not much out there. I know that section of road well, be ware of the sped trap about 15-20 miles from the FL boarder. Some little town is making speeding tickets their infrastructure improvement fund. LOL.

Yup… darien Ga. Basically the marshes

 

[Goofyernmost]

Did your van break on I-95 in southern GA? Not much out there. I know that section of road well, be ware of the sped trap about 15-20 miles from the FL boarder. Some little town is making speeding tickets their infrastructure improvement fund. LOL.

Yea, but my god, how fast do you have to be going to be stopped. There were times when I was traveling at 80 mph in that area and had cars go by me so fast that I thought my car broke down and stepped out to see what was wrong. What a trip that was dude!

 

[JIMINYCR]

Did your van break on I-95 in southern GA? Not much out there. I know that section of road well, be ware of the sped trap about 15-20 miles from the FL boarder. Some little town is making speeding tickets their infrastructure improvement fund. LOL.

Our last trip down we barely saw a trooper from ME to FL until we hit GA. Then they were sitting in in every cut out on the roadway. Saw them bagging more truckers than ever.