Academic

"They're out here taking craps in the middle of the highway because there's no place to go"

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

I used to make fun of places like Tennessee, Delaware, and Oregon for their inability to cope with winter weather. This would never happen in Wisconsin. So much for that myth.

During last week's big storm, I was getting email messages about the University of Wisconsin closing, and I was stunned. They never close the University!

But I had no idea that some people were stuck in traffic for more than 12 hours:

The State Patrol said it became aware there was a serious problem around 4 p.m. on Wednesday. The fact that there were no major crashes delayed the response, Collins said.

The National Guard deployed a helicopter just before 11 p.m. to survey the extent of the traffic jam.

Sixty-eight National Guard soldiers, with help from state and county law enforcement and emergency management officials, distributed 7,000 bottles of water and 420 meals to stranded motorists throughout the night.

As traffic remained stalled past midnight, many truck drivers went to sleep, further delaying the effort to keep traffic flowing. Emergency officials had to knock on truck cabins to alert drivers that the road ahead was clear.

The National Guard helicopter surveyed the scene again at 4 a.m. and traffic was still blocked by stalled cars. Another sweep at 8 a.m. found traffic was moving, though very slowly.

There were no serious crashes or injuries resulting from the traffic jam.

Wow. This just shatters my image of my home state.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on February 10, 2008 (boomark / email).