by - Dozens of passengers were stranded at a Sacramento bus stop after the freeways closed this week.
- Travelers at the station said Sacramento was helpful in providing necessities but still said the experience was a nightmare.
- Greyhound resumed operations Wednesday, CBS reported.
Dozens of travelers in California were forced to stay overnight at a bus stop as winter weather closed freeways and halted traffic.
According to local news station KCRA, about 50 travelers were stuck overnight Greyhound station in Sacramento this week after their buses were either canceled or delayed. Some potential passengers slept at the station for days, KCRA reported.
Winter storms closed freeways and canceled several West Coast Greyhound routes through this weekend as unusual snowfall continues across California. This week Gov. Gavin Newsom placed 13 California counties on a state of emergency due to winter weather.
Though Sacramento wasn’t under a state of emergency this week, winter weather and closed freeways still left travelers stranded at the Greyhound station.
“There were a lot of people who had been here for a few days, some of them with limited access to food and water, so we initiated a housing operation,” said Daniel Bowers, director of the City of Sacramento Office of Emergency Management KCRA.
According to Bowers, stranded travelers are better off sheltering in place. He told KCRA the city is working with the Red Cross to provide things like blankets to passengers at the station.
“This is where they want to be because their buses may or may not depart. They want that information to be readily available to them,” Bowers told KCRA.
A traveler at the station told KCRA that being stranded was miserable, but the city was accommodating given the circumstances. A local restaurant provided hot meals for passengers while they were stuck.
“It’s been very helpful, and we really appreciate everything that Sacramento is doing,” said traveler Barbara Frederick. “It was very, very, very heartwarming.”
It’s just one in a string of recent travel fiascos after last month’s winter weather caused headaches and created dangerous conditions across the country.
According to CBS, Greyhound service resumed Wednesday at the Sacramento train station — not soon enough for many travelers.
“The chairs in here are all wired, metal, and they’re hard. They’re stiff and they don’t recline. There’s nothing soft here,” Daniel Woodward told CBS of the Sacramento bus station.
