People Rescued But Highways Still Closed

The last of hundreds of motorists who had been stranded on Interstate 78 were finally sprung loose Friday morning but the highway remained shut down as crews struggled to clear ice and snow from the road surface.

"It took us a couple of days to get a lot of disabled vehicles, especially tractor-trailers, off the road so we could get back in and deal the 4- to 6-inch ice layer that has formed on many spots," DOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick said in a telephone interview.

State Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler said Friday that I-78, as well as large portions of I-81 and I-80, would remain closed so crews and salt trucks could attack the icy mixture that coated the pavement and became rock-hard as overnight temperatures plummeted.

"Interstate 81 is closed in both directions between the Fort Indiantown Gap area, just east of Harrisburg, and the Wilkes-Barre area," Kirkpatrick said. The closure of I-80 stretches from "roughly the Bloomsburg area in north-central Pennsylvania and U.S. 209 in the Pocono Mountains region."

Rest areas on open parts of Interstate 78 were "full to the rafters" with truckers who have nowhere to go, reports CBS radio station KYW-AM.

Sean Brown, a PennDOT spokesman, said Friday morning, "We have plow trucks out there, we have graders out there, we have loaders out there, just hammering away at it."

The work continued a day after National Guardsmen in Humvees ferried food, fuel and baby supplies to motorists who had been stranded on a 50-mile stretch of I-78 in eastern Pennsylvania for nearly 24 hours — the victims of a Valentine's Day storm that dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain on most of the state.

State officials, under mounting criticism, said they were unable to prevent the colossal jam. Several jackknifed tractor trailers stacked up traffic, and even after they were cleared, the big rigs behind them were unable to get any traction and got stuck themselves, state police said.

PennDOT estimated that at one point there were hundreds of tractor-trailers stuck. Some trucks were stranded by road conditions, while others ran out of fuel or their fuel froze.

But drivers were outraged, especially ones who had unwittingly blundered into the jam on Thursday.

State police did not close all the entrance ramps to I-78 until around 5 p.m. Thursday, more than 24 hours after cars and trucks started getting caught. Officials could not provide an explanation for why it took so long.

"Why would they have that exit open if they were just going to let us sit there?" said a crying Deborah Miller. Her 5-year-old son was trapped in the car with her, running a 103-degree fever from strep throat.

"How could you operate a state like this? It's totally disgusting," said Eugene Coleman, of Hartford, Conn., who was trapped for 20 hours with his girlfriend and pregnant daughter. "God forbid somebody gets really stuck on the highway and has a life-threatening emergency. That person would have died."

Gov. Ed Rendell declared a statewide disaster emergency, which authorizes state agencies to use all available resources and personnel and which waives some bidding and contract procedures. He also announced that tolls would be waived for 24 hours on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.