How I-84 became a parking lot

Unimaginable is how emergency responders reacted to a site never seen before in the Hudson Valley.

A 20-mile stretch of Interstate 84 from the Putnam-Connecticut border through Southeast, Kent, Patterson, East Fishkill, and Beacon, across the Hamilton Fish Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, to the Stewart International Airport was closed to traffic trapping hundreds of unsuspecting motorists for 12 hours.

The drivers were stuck in last Thursday and Friday’s “storm of the decade,” that dumped six inches of snow in eastern Putnam but as much as 16 inches of snow on the western side of the county and nearly three feet of snow in Orange and Ulster counties.

Heavy snow began falling around 10pm last Thursday, and by 11pm the interstate crawled to a halt, with tractor trailer rigs, passenger cars, buses, and other vehicles stopped dead in their tracks.

Traffic was so heavy that DOT trucks could not get through to plow and sand the road and while some motorists near exit ramps managed to escape, the overwhelming majority became trapped despite 911 calls seeking assistance.

State Police from East Fishkill, who patrol the interstate, and emergency crews from Putnam, Dutchess, and Orange counties used snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles to reach stranded motorists. The teams went from vehicle to vehicle to check on occupants and found them hungry and tired but otherwise OK.

“I’ve never spent such a long night in all my life,” said Robert Minella of Brookfield, Conn. Minella was stranded on a section of the interstate in Kent near Exit 17.

Another man, Bart Mooney of Worcester, Mass., said he was on his way home when “everything came to a halt. I thought an accident had occurred but as the hours went by I realized the weather was the culprit. Thank goodness I gassed up my car before I crossed the bridge so I was able to keep warm at least.”

At the Route 312 interchange in Southeast, which was closed due to a downed tree and wires, several Good Samaritans tossed bottles of water over the guide rail onto the interstate, which allowed the stranded drivers to have their first drink in hours.

Shortly before 12 noon on Friday, the road was finally opened and the long caravan of vehicles went on its way, with stories to tell that drivers and passengers hope will never be repeated.