‘It Was Crazy': CT Family Among Those Stuck on I-95 in Virginia

A Connecticut family is thankful to be home after a traffic nightmare on I-95 in Virginia.

They were among the trapped cars on the icy and snowy highway. Some were stuck on a 50-mile stretch for more than 24 hours.

“It was crazy. I’ve never been through anything like that,” said Courtney Patenaude of Southington.

Their trip home to Connecticut after a vacation in South Carolina came to a standstill on Monday after multiple crashes during a major snowstorm.

“We just hung around outside the car as much as we could when we were in the dead stop because it was so painful sitting in there that entire time,” said Patenaude.

They barely moved over 14 hours.

While many ran out of gas in the freezing temperatures, Patenaude says thankfully they had filled up right before getting stuck.

“Food wise we didn’t have much. We had what we packed for snacks. We had some chips and some water bottles we were running out of very quickly. Cold wise we did stay warm because we kept the car running as much as we could. But once we turned it off it got very cold, very quickly,” said Patenaude.

They weren’t the only ones from our state there.

Virginia’s U.S. Senator Tim Kaine tweeting out a picture and wrote:

“A CT family returning in a packed car from Florida walked by in the middle of the night handing out oranges as we were stopped for hours on I-95. Bless them!”

A CT family returning in a packed car from Florida walked by in the middle of the night handing out oranges as we were stopped for hours on I-95. Bless them! pic.twitter.com/MrmZ1ZF6JJ

— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 4, 2022

Patenaude says their experience wasn’t too horrible and they did the best they could.

Though after what should have been a 13 hour drive turned into 31 hours, she’s done with road trips for a while.

“I am not going to go on one for a very long time,” said Patenaude.