Duquesne team bus stranded overnight in snowstorm

Dozens of buses were stuck overnight after the Pennsylvania turnpike was locked down due to winter storm blizzard Jonas, including the Duquesne University’s men’s basketball team.

The Dukes were traveling home to Pittsburgh from Fairfax, Va., after their 86-75 victory against George Mason on Friday.

The Duquesne Equipment Twitter account also posted an online poll asking who should push the team bus, with several options listed.

Coach Jim Ferry says the team bus hasn’t “moved one inch in 12 hours”.

It wasn’t initially clear if the backup was caused by an accident or if the roadway became impassable because of the heavy snow. That honor went to the heavily populated stretch between Washington and New York City that are under blizzard warnings.

Salim-Beasley, however, said her team’s training has made spending hours on a cramped bus more bearable than it might be for others.

Ferry said he wasn’t sure when the bus will be able to move again.

Pockets of motorists were stuck in the westbound lanes of the turnpike south of Pittsburgh, Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said.

“We just got to get these guys home and get them stretched out and get them some food”, he said.

A chaperon for another group that was stuck on the turnpike Saturday told CNN that while her students have been able to stay warm on their bus and even reached out to other stranded motorists to let them use the bus restroom, they are concerned about running out of food. “We heard that the National Guard was called but we haven’t seen anyone on the road”.

‘The safety of Pennsylvanians is my top priority, as many areas across Pennsylvania have been hit hard by this storm, which features heavy snow falling at a fast rate, ‘ Wolf said. The state’s emergency management agency said late Friday that the highway was “completely shut down” – a status that hadn’t changed by mid-morning Saturday. ‘Right now we’re anxious about the kids’.

A similar incident happened in 2014 when the Niagara women’s basketball team was stranded on the New York State Thruway for almost 30 hours after a huge storm dumped 4 feet of snow around Buffalo.