MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — Accidents and icy pavement caused a miles-long traffic standstill on the northbound lanes of Interstate 75 in Monroe County, stranding drivers for up to 15 hours and forcing them to spend the night in their vehicles.
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Shortly before noon Wednesday, the Georgia State Patrol cleared the highway and traffic slowly began flowing again.
Emma Worley was driving home to Cherokee County from Savannah when she got stuck in the paralyzed traffic, just north of the Georgia Highway 42 exit, Tuesday night. By 11 a.m. Wednesday, she had barely moved.
“I haven’t slept,” Worley said. “I’ve never experienced anything like this my whole entire life.”
She said she waited 15 hours with “no food, no sleep, no nothing.”
Anna Watkins, a spokeswoman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, said several accidents north of Forsyth caused the massive backup. The Georgia Department of Transportation treated that stretch of interstate with brine before the storm.
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Jemes Talabert and his girlfriend were traveling from Miami to Minnesota.
“We don’t have anything to eat,” Talabert said. “We only have water and we’ve been here since last night. It’s kind of ridiculous.”
Alan Burnett was driving from Ocala, Fla., to Ohio. He was about 30 miles from his hotel when he got trapped in this traffic at around 8:30 Tuesday night.
“I was driving through a terrible storm with cars flying off the road,” Burnett said.
He said he passed the time “listening to the radio, eating a few snacks in my car.”
But he didn’t sleep.
“I didn’t think it was safe to fall asleep on the highway,” he said.
Mark Coombs was on his way back from Americus, Ga., to his home in Locust Grove. He tried to take the standstill in stride.
“It is what it is,” Coombs said.
“You go out in bad weather, you gotta deal with it,” he said. “I grew up north, so I know all about bad weather. It is what it is.”
The southbound lanes of I-75 were not affected. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, traffic was moving at regular speeds in both directions of the interstate.
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