Drivers got caught in monumental traffic jams and abandoned their cars Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C.
The situation was eerily similar to what happened in Atlanta two weeks ago: As snow started to fall around midday, everyone left work at the same time.
“It seemed like every other car was getting stuck, fishtailing, trying to move forward,” said Caitlin Palmieri, who drove two blocks from her job at a bread store in downtown Raleigh before getting stuck. She left her car behind and walked back to the store.
Soo Keith, of Raleigh, left work a little after noon, thinking she would have plenty of time to get home before the worst of the snow hit. Instead, Keith, who is three months pregnant, was able to drive only a few miles before she decided to start walking, wearing dress shoes and a coat that wouldn’t zip over her belly.
With a blanket draped over her shoulders, she made it home more than four hours later, likening her journey to the blizzard scene in the movie “Dr. Zhivago.”
“My face is all frozen, my glasses are all frozen, my hair is all frozen,” the mother of two and Chicago native said as she walked the final mile to her house. “I know how to drive in the snow. But this storm came on suddenly and everyone was leaving work at the same time.”
Raleigh city spokeswoman Jayne Kirkpatrick had no estimate of how many vehicles had been abandoned and was unable to say whether motorists might be stranded on the road overnight.
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