Sipesville Volunteer Fire Company

The first call came at 0340 asking for snowmobiles to check on motorists stranded on the PA Turnpike but we were cancelled before responding. The cancellation gave us time to try to clear a way through 24" - 30" of snow that piled up over night at the station. Several personal vehicles became stuck in the parking lot responding to the call. We were again called at 0830. We were asked to find food and water to take to the motorists stranded between milepost 102 and 106 in the west bound lane of the turnpike. Some were in one spot for over 12 hours. We made calls to local business for water and granola bars. Staging was set up at the gate for the turnpike at the 104 milepost. Supplies were brought to staging where four fire fighters starting walking. Two headed east and two west on the west bound lane of the turnpike. After some time, calls were made to contact some snowmobile owners to have them come to the staging to speed up the distribution since the back log had now reached the 110 mile post on the roadway. 20 - 25 local residents and fire fighters arrived ready to do what ever was asked of them. PA National Guards assisted with manpower and brought in MRE to also be handed out to the people. A second order was put in for more MREs which were about 2 hours away. At approximately 1500 traffic slowly started to move. Traffic was cleared back to the staging gate. At that time the turnpike brought on six plows to open the roadway to that point.

At 1600 staging was moved to the interchange where Somerset's Chief took over the command post. At that time for safety reasons all snowmobiles were advised to report to that location for instructions. The National Guard was sent to the interchange to stage to wait for the second supply of MRE meals and to help the distribution of supplies and water from that point.

Around 1730 State police informed command that Rt. 31 was open to Donegal. The traffic was then given the option to get off the pike and to follow Rt. 31 to Donegal where they could return to the pike and continue west.

The longest back log at one time on the roadway was from the 102 mile post to the 116 mile post. The estimated number of cars on the roadway was 200 per mile.