Athletes, trucks, cars halted on snowed-in turnpike

Twenty-five Dowling Catholic High School students were heading home from a pro-life rally in Washington D.C when their charter bus got stuck on a Pennsylvania turnpike east of Pittsburgh on Interstate 70.

After being stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for almost a day, the men’s basketball team worked together to push their bus out of the mound of snow that had been holding them captive. Once there, the students planned to look for something to eat.

“I think we’re past the amusement part of it, that’s for sure”, Ferry told College GameDay via phone Saturday evening, when his team was still stranded.

After 17 hours, the National Guard came through and the bus got moving again. Benda says their bus filled-up with fuel right before taking off.

“It’s pretty great”, Cowgill said. “They have been so patient”.

DeWitte said the two stranded buses contain about 110 Iowans from Des Moines, Sioux City, Spirit Lake, Denison and Council Bluffs. The Griffith group left early Friday morning, hoping to get ahead of the storm, but got stuck.

Their efforts didn’t pay off. The 300 to 400 passengers stalled by the storm since about 11 p.m. Friday include the school’s president, Father Sean Sheridan, spokesman Tom Sofio said. He said there appears to be at least three pockets of stuck traffic spanning about 23 miles of the turnpike.

“You have a lot of students-8th grade students-who are going stir insane”, said Barney Bejeski, the Athletic Director at St. Mary.

“We played the game”.

Some of the students held an impromptu Mass.

They also shared items from a stockpile of snacks – Pop-Tarts, crackers, fruit snacks. Photos on social media showed trucks and buses covered in snow. A number of Erie-area people who meant to participate in the Washington march did not make the trip because of the weather reports, Lafaro said. As traffic backed up behind them, more trucks became unable to go up the hill, backing up all vehicles and preventing emergency crews from getting heavy-duty tow trucks to the scene and road crews from being able to clear the snow.