After pileup, Colorado tourist town of Georgetown opened community center, restaurants to I-70 travelers

The small mountain community of Georgetown in the Colorado mountains stepped up to offer aid to people impacted by the 70-car pileup on I-70 on Tuesday.

"I didn't see it coming," said Emily Medina.

By the time Medina realized there was a pileup involving ten vehicles in front of her, she was the 11th car.

"I was just exiting the tunnel, and everything looked pitch black. It was snowing heavily. When I went to brake, because I could see cars that had already crashed, I was trying to slow down, and that's when I crashed," said Medina.

The vehicles continued to pile up behind her.

"I think I was actually one of the last people to crash in that pileup. Then, right at the end, another truck cut across the road, and there were even more crashes, and people were injured," said Medina. "The person I hit, because, yes, I did crash into someone, they were quite badly injured."

"Terrible. Yeah, that's big. It's terrible," said Ron Grady, the owner of a restaurant in Georgetown called 511 ROSE.

As first responders jumped into action, so did the Georgetown community, opening the community center as an emergency shelter.

Loveland Ski Resort shuttles transported some people from near the crash site to the Georgetown Community Center, which became a warming shelter for both people and pets involved in the pileup. It was somewhere they could decompress while they waited for a ride.

"You just think about people stranded on the highway," said Grady.

Grady was enjoying a day off when he got a call from the town's mayor, telling him about the crash and the need for the town to step up.

"Lounging around in our pajamas, just kind of enjoying a day off, watching it snow. We're closed Tuesday, Wednesday," said Grady. "We decided that we would come down and just open up and see if people needed a place to sit or eat or just relax."

Grady quickly called his staff, and opened 511 Rose with a limited menu -- on a day they're usually closed -- to offer shelter and a warm meal to any impacted travelers.

"It could be a friendly face or a cup of coffee, just something that we can do to try to help," said Grady.

As the traffic slowly cleared, and tow trucks hauled cars away one by one, the small mountain town welcomed those during a tough time.

"If there's people that need help, we want to help," said Grady. "It's just a really nice, small Colorado community."

511 Rose ended up mostly being a warm place for some cold journalists, and others from the community who had jumped in to help. It doesn't appear anyone impacted by the crash came to the restaurant.

A Georgetown representative said by 8 p.m. Tuesday everyone was out of the community center shelter, most of them got rides, and one found a hotel.