1000 cars are stranded on I-90 between Janesville and Madison since this am

[undeterred]

Posted Wednesday --- February 6, 2008 -- 7:30pm Madison NBC news

The westbound lane of the interstate remains closed at this hour. It's been at a standstill since 11:30 Wednesday morning. The Dane County sheriff's department says the National Guard has been called in.

According to a 911 dispatcher, more than 1.000 vehicles are stranded -- stretching from Madison all the way to Dane county - Rock County border. Lori Getter with Wisconsin Emergency Management is advising people to stay in their cars.

According to Emergency Management, 10 Fire Departments from Dane County are going car to car to find out who needs food and gas. Lori Getter with Wisconsin Emergency Management is advising people to stay in their cars. Authorities will be delivering blankets. Several jack-knifed semis appear to be the cause of the back-up on Wednesday morning.

The back-up appears to be along Interstate 39 between the County Highway N Stoughton exit and Highway 51 North to Stoughton.

Our reporter on scene Evrod Cassimy has been stranded on the Interstate since 11:30am Wednesday morning. Cassimy called the 911 Center Wednesday night to get an update on when help would be arriving. The 911 dispatch center says up to 1,000 cars are stranded on the Interstate. The back-up stretches from Madison to the Rock County line.

Traffic in at least one direction finally began to move early Wednesday evening. The State Patrol says they do not want to speculate on the number of motorists stranded at this time.

We have word from the county that crews have arrived at the incident. Reports from area scanners are indicating that authorities are using ATV's and snowmobiles to rescue the stranded motorists.

http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/15381096.html


Edit: Its 23 degrees and some of these people have been out there for hours. Now I understand why the sheriff's department was asking for all of Madison to get home early (although we didn't know that this was blocked- I just had to drive 4 miles within the city). I was home safe and warm by 3pm.

[CatholicEdHead]

1. I was just at the NBC 15 website and saw that

This is downright dangerous for a backup this long. I hope the WI National Guard can do what they can for people in the cars. That is a long backup from County Road N to the Dane/Rock County border.

Stay safe down there!

[undeterred]

2. 10pm news said traffic was finally moving

40 guardsman were along the way with humvees, and someone was delivering a baby in one of the vehicles... I guess there were accidents at some exits so people could not even leave the interstate.

[Jimbo S]

3. No mention on Milwaukee TV

One would think this would be a top story statewide. But then again Milwaukee media tends to ignore events outstate. I rarely do this, but I'll be sending an e-mail to the station I was watching.

[CatholicEdHead]

5. Madison is "outstate"?

It is only an hour commute (roughly) between the two metropolitan areas. Must be really Milwaukee-centric.

[Jimbo S]

11. Milwaukee-centric is part of it

The other part is well, the news reporters don't report "news" anymore.

Milwaukee TV will send someone to Madison if something big is happening at the Capitol, like the budget mess. Other then that, there isn't much state political coverage and nothing non-political from south central Wisconsin.

[CatholicEdHead]

12. So if you live in Watertown, Beaver Dam, Johnson Creek

Oconomowoc, etc... you are out of luck then. Neither Madison or Milwaukee care about you.

That is pretty bad as it is only an hour drive (though I know people who can make it 45min or so, even with Jefferson County cops) to be in a news black hole.

[Jimbo S]

13. Madison TV and paper(s) will cover those areas

Madison does a good job covering the rural areas of SC and SW Wisconsin. Not as many people in the Madison area, so they need to reel in the rural viewers.

Milwaukee usually will only cover Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties. Maybe a spec in Washington and Sheboygan Co.

To follow up with the story, I did e-mail the Mailwaukee television station whose news program I was watching that evening. To their credit, they did get back to me. They said they first got word at 10:22 pm and went straight to the air with it. I had turned it off at 10:15. Giving what transpired after the fact, with the authorities slow to respond to the developing situation, I'll cut the news department some slack on this one.

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. Dayum!

So glad I went to the LDS Center on Tuesday to do research. I only heard about the approaching snow there, and they were saying they had heard 14 inches.

I was actually thinking about heading to the Green County courthouse this week for some research if the weather held. Aiyee!

[undeterred]

6. Something strange happened that this did not get reported to the media

Even in Madison nobody knew what was going on or why we were all being told to go home from work. The Dane County sheriff somehow got the word out to everyone except the major media outlets, which is hard to do- so businesses were closing, but people here didn't know about the highway situation till late in the day.

See images here... http://www.channel3000.com/news/15241783/detail.html

Traffic Moving On I-90 After Overnight Backup
Hundreds Of Motorists Stuck On Interstate Overnight

MADISON, Wis. -- Traffic was moving again on Interstate 39-90 in Dane and Rock counties on Thursday morning after hundreds of motorists were stranded in the snow after a massive snowstorm blew through the area.

About 2,000 motorists were stuck overnight when the storm delivered whiteout conditions and heavy snowfall. The storm dumped more than a foot of snow in some parts of the state on Wednesday.

The incident began when some tractor-trailers lost traction and got stuck on a small hill on I-90 north during Wednesday's storm. State emergency management personnel said the problem developed around 1 p.m. and traffic was backed up into Rock County. This produced a major backlog of over 1,050 vehicles in the westbound lane. As conditions worsened, this left hundreds of motorists, headed in both directions, stranded for hours in a traffic backup. At one point, the traffic backup on I-90 stretched 17 miles, WISC-TV reported.

Gov. Jim Doyle called a state of emergency to have National Guard troops help them late Wednesday night. About 70 National Guard troops on snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles were checking on the stranded motorists early Thursday morning. They delivered fuel, food, water and blankets to some of those stuck.

The Guard soldiers made three separate trips on four-wheel drive vehicles to run motorists 7,000 bottles of water and more than 400 ready-to-eat meals, officials said.

The Dane and Rock county sheriff's department activated as many deputies as possible to help. State Department of Natural Resources workers were also out on snowmobiles, WISC-TV reported.
...

[snacker]

7. I agree

This got little media coverage both during and after the event. I was telling my daughter (who lives in Minneapolis)about it and she couldn't believe that it wasn't a bigger story. She reminded me of the coverage given to the people who were stuck on that Jet Blue airplane for hours. From what I've heard, some of these people were stuck in their cars for up to 15 hours. I haven't seen any media interviews with any of those people here in Northeast Wisconsin. I would think there would be some interesting stories there. I certainly would have thought this was a MAJOR story both nationally and locally.

[undeterred]

8. They were telling us to go home from work right away

Since I live inside Madison- it made no difference which route I took. But for 2/3 of the people leaving Madison, they might have to cross the interstate or they might usually take it to go north or south or get on it to go west back toward Milwaukee. One of my co-workers kept trying to get on it but couldn't- eventually he saw a truck jacknifed across the entrance at the top. But it wasn't on radio or tv news. Even if one person was at work and another family member was at home looking for info there was none to find. I guess the governor is aware of this and calling for an investigation.

At any rate, people did what they were told and went home. But apparently there were more like 2000 people stranded on the interstate. There was a reporter stranded there by chance. 40 guardsmen went out from Madison- guess what, we probably have more but they are halfway around the world. The next morning there were still 850 cars out there.

[CatholicEdHead]

9. This just a bad stretch overall this winter

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/breaking_news/271835

nterstate 39-90 in southern Dane County was closed for nearly two hours this morning after a string of collisions and slide-offs on the icy road.

The highway was blocked off at 8:45 a.m. from Highway N to about seven miles south of there, in the Stoughton area. About 120 vehicles were either stuck in the ditch or crashed in that stretch. A State Patrol trooper's car was hit twice by cars skidding on the slippery road.

The State Patrol brought in a team to lead out trapped motorists, driving westbound in the eastbound lanes, Sgt. Les Mlsna said.

There was no immediate count on how many vehicles were involved in crashes but no serious injuries were reported, Mlsna said.

[undeterred]

10. Yes, and there were accidents yesterday too.

In the past I've commuted to Janesville and Beloit from Madison without any problems- but I'm glad to be working in Madison now. There are a lot of trucks. And when the weather is bad, people don't necessarily drive as carefully as they should.