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Family's trip to Florida becomes travel nightmare
A family visiting Orlando had their flight canceled twice, so they decided to rent a car and drive back home. To make matters worse, they found themselves caught on Interstate 95 in a snowstorm traffic jam.
LAKE MARY, Fla. - A family heading home from a vacation in Orlando says they got stuck on Interstate 95 for about nine hours in the midst of a winter storm.
Jennifer Travis says the family's flight out of Orlando was canceled two days in a row, so they rented a car to drive home to Virginia. She sent FOX 35 News several cell phone videos and photos documenting the travel nightmare.
Travis was traveling with her husband and daughter. She says they knew about the bad weather in the forecast, but they rented a car that could handle snow. The family left Orlando Monday afternoon at around 2 p.m.
She says the drive should have been 10 to 11 hours but took them more than 24 hours. She says I-95 was like a parking lot.
A family visiting Orlando had their flight canceled twice, so they decided to rent a car and drive back home. To make matters worse, they found themselves caught on Interstate 95 in a snowstorm traffic jam. [Courtesy: Jennifer Travis]
"We didn’t know what was going to happen, so we were turning the car off every couple minutes, turning it back on, cracking the windows to avoid inhaling carbon monoxide. We just came from Florida, so it’s not like we had winter jackets and winter boots. This is what we were wearing: a light hoodie, t-shirts, leggings, sneakers. We weren’t prepared for this," she explained.
RELATED: Family leaving Florida stranded on I-95 in Virginia for hours with just fruit, water
Travis says when they finally got off I-95, they were diverted to more roads that weren’t plowed and packed with drivers.
She feels like Virginia officials could have handled this emergency better, but she’s grateful that her family is safe and back home.
A family visiting Orlando had their flight canceled twice, so they decided to rent a car and drive back home. To make matters worse, they found themselves caught on Interstate 95 in a snowstorm traffic jam. [Courtesy: Jennifer Travis]
The drivers were stranded after a multi-vehicle crash shut down the interstate amid snow and freezing temperatures. No one was injured in the tractor-trailer collision Monday afternoon that brought traffic to a standstill, but it became impossible to move as the snow accumulated.
The Virginia Department of Transportation said around daybreak Tuesday that its crews would start taking people off the roadway wherever they could be reached.
Watch FOX 35 Orlando for the latest Central Florida news.
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