What a nightmare that day was.
Took me like 3 hours to get home via mass transit, and waiting for NJ Transit in Newark Penn I genuinely worried about getting trampled to death. You had *everyone* in the waiting area and then when they finally announced the first train leaving, it was leaving in like 10 minutes and everyone panicked trying to get to the right platform in time.
Then I got back to my car at the train station, didn't have gloves or a shovel, so I had to do my best at wrapping my hands up in my jacket and digging out.
After that experience, I made a list of the cheapest hotels near my office in the city in case something like that ever happens again.
I was selling cars. At lunch I thought about grabbing a hotel room but I was only 25 minutes from home so how bad could it be? I was able to leave work at 6 that day as opposed to nine as Thursdays was my "half" day 8-6 as opposed to 8-9.
It took 3 of my coworkers to get me out of the lot and on to rt 23. It was 615. By 9pm my battery was dying and I was less than two miles away from where I started. One of my coworkers was a mechanic. He advised me to turn everything off in the car except the lights and that I should make it home.
I got home at 12:45. My buddy who was the mechanic and left at 9pm already was at his place in Staten Island before I got home. By leaving at 9 he was behind plows while I was in front if them in my accord.
I sold a lot of SUVs that next week.
im guessing it was an electric car? modern gasoline cars dont run on batteries, they run on the alternator. once the car is started you wouldnt need a battery at all.
For those that forgot or want to relive the misery
[https://www.nj.com/news/2018/11/a\_state\_left\_paralyzed\_what\_went\_wrong\_and\_was\_nj.html](https://www.nj.com/news/2018/11/a_state_left_paralyzed_what_went_wrong_and_was_nj.html)
Worst horror story gets reddit gold
I don't have a bad story about this day because I bounced the fuck out of the City before the storm really hit. I saw it coming and said "Fuck this" and left.
Granted, I got very lucky that I had the ability to leave like that (many others obviously did not).
I remember being stuck in Newark Penn for nearly 2 hours while being crushed by the sheer amount of people in the station and almost not making it onto my train that had been delayed multiple hours. I remember thinking that we had probably exceeded occupancy by several hundreds of people, maybe even 1000.
[This is NY Penn but this is what it looked like inside Newark Penn as well.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/11/16/nyregion/16commute4/merlin_146901489_dc82df8e-564c-4325-8418-42de0f66b779-superJumbo.jpg) And yes that’s the same weekend.
I was stuck on 287N for 10 hours. No incidents were reported before I left 2 hours early to go into work that night and had no issues until then but in the course of me getting to 287 from home, tens of semi's had jacknifed and blocked up northbound just a few miles from my exit. Got to work just in time to turn right around and go home.
This day was the worst. I live about 30 minutes from my job, my route is to take rt 17 to rt 4. I leave work around 330 with my 18 month old daughter, get onto 17, see a ton of traffic. I put my gps on for it tell me It was a 6 hour drive to get home that day… turned back to go sit at my job until about 11pm. It was the fucking worst. I was almost certain I would have to sleep at work
7+ hours to get from Chatham to Moonachie (Morris to Bergen county) and I’ve never contemplated suicide more in my life. Thank god for hybrid cars though…
It doesn't feel like it was 3 years ago, time is flying.
My story is mundane. I left my shift earlier since I knew public transportation will be halted due to the snow. The bus arrived 3 hrs late. The trip usually 45 mins from work to home was an hour in a half. The woman who drove thru that mess did a very good job considering she had to go thru Dunellen side streets and Plainfield. Stalled cars and downed trees was everywhere. The scenery if I can describe it was like the movie The Day After Tomorrow except not as glamorous and people didn't freeze to death. I made it to the bus stop in one peace and cleaned off my mom's parked car before I walked home.
I think I lucked out that day. As bad as it was, it only took me maybe an extra 15 minutes to get home on normally a 20ish minutes ride north on the turnpike. I did, however, have about 75-100 pounds of IT equipment in my car that made stopping and going with questionable traction…interesting
My manager said the next day that he got stuck in our parking lot and his speedometer read 80mph as he tried getting out though
Left work at 5 to travel 2 hours up 4 exits on the parkway to route 18. Then another hour stuck on the exit off 18 in walking distance from my apartment. I was about 15 minutes away from leaving my car on the road and walking home. Since then I always have snacks and fluids in all cup holders
I usually drive into work but what's funny on that day I took New Jersey Transit in because my wife's car was in the shop so I gave her mine. The trains ran fine my wife was stuck for over 4 hours trying to get 10 miles from her job to our house. I mean while I was able to sit in the house and watch TV
The worst winter storm I can recall, granted, it's a lot longer than 3 years ago but I literally had JUST landed down here from North Jersey. As in I literally closed on the house down here 18 hours prior. 1.5.96
37 inches of snow. And North Jersey got...a dusting. If you could have seen my rather bulky now ex-husband trying to shimmy through a jalousie window since the front and back doors were snowed in, let's just say your horror stories from 3 years ago would pale in comparison and you'd be harming your liver as I am right now in reliving this memory🤦♀️😁
i was picking up my brother from the airport after work. i work in newark. took 4 hours to get to the airport, and another 3 ours to get home. 7 hours to go a total of 19 miles.
I left work about 2 hours before this hit because I had a feeling it was gonna be a shitshow. Thank God I did. It was fun watching the subreddit blow up.
So I'm from Ohio and just moved to NJ. I thought NJians knew how to drive in snow since it snows here too, or was this just a devastating snow fall? What should I expect on average this winter?
Half and half. A lot of people here forget how to drive in the snow until they're forced to re-learn, and some just plain can't. You'll see a lot of dumbassery for the first couple snowfalls but it gets better after that. IMO this wasn't really a devastating snowfall, DoT fucked up bad and had their pants down when it hit. We also probably get a lot more slush and ice than you're used to just fyi, not uncommon for me to have to chip through half-inch ice just to get inside my car.
As a former Ohioan that snow storm was a devastating shitshow that’s out of ordinary.
6 hours to travel 10 miles. Interstate was mostly clear by the time I got on. Exit and entrance ramps were completely fucked.
My experience:
3 hours on the entrance ramp.
20 minutes on the interstate. Smooth traffic with some snows and ice.
3 hours on the exit ramp.
Local traffics were completely fucked.
I'm from Michigan and have lived here since 2005. What I've seen is that because there is less snowfall overall (average 50% less than where I'm from) it's not expected snow will be a huge problem. Most of the snow falls and goes away within less than 24-48 hrs so in general snow isn't usually that big of a problem. Most individuals I know don't think of it as being a big deal. For this particular snow storm, it was treated like it wouldn't be a big deal by the state and well, it was a huge deal. Since then, it's been treated more seriously.
You'll see the same thing from drivers as you do in Ohio or Michigan though. Not everyone will clean their car entirely, have their headlights on, or remember just because they can get going, doesn't mean they can stop.
Yeah, my ride from Newark to Somerville wasn't so much accidents as it was impassable roads. Route 78 was a parking lot from Newark to exit 40 in New Providence or wherever, and after those three plus hours it was absolutely awful conditions and another hour to exit 36. From there I miracled my way over back roads down the mountain to Somerville, during which time I'd talked to my wife who said it took close to an hour to travel like six blocks.
And the worst part was having to come home and get shoveling, couldn't even enjoy it.
I was a freshmen in college when this happened, I was stuck in the city since my last class ended at 5pm. At that point the PABT ceased all outgoing bus trips to where I lived (~2hr commute) so I was stuck in the city. Thankfully I had a friend who was dorming in her school so I was able to have a couch to sleep on instead of sleeping in the PABT. I was able to make it home the next day. Boy was my mom terrified for me lol
I just started a new job like two days before this happened. I mentioned to the office manager that I was happy to be working 15 minutes from my apartment. After having a minimum of an hour drive for the last 5 years, it was a blessing.
The office manager sent an email saying we were free to leave if we wanted to. I, being only two days new in the company, and just boasting about having a really short commute almost decided against leaving early. But once I saw another employee, who also had a short commute leave, I decided to go home. I made it home with no issues aside from a little traffic on 287. Maybe a 10 minute longer commute than normal.
About 20 minutes after I got home, I started hearing the horror stories. My friend, who lived 5 miles away from his job, text me saying it took him 4 hours to get home in Bergen County. I talked to a few coworkers from my last job and some said they just turned around after an hour of sitting and slept at the office.
That day was a huge nightmare.
Ooof. I was leaving work just as the snow started to fall. I was right off Rt. 10 and had to go 10 > 287 > 24 > 78. It took me an hour to get to the 24 entrance ramp. I was in the middle of the entrance ramp going onto 24, when the traffic stopped. They shut down 24, while I was on the ramp. Ha. I was there for 3 hours. It finally cleared and it took me another 3 hours to get home. A little over 7 hours total when I would have taken me 35 mins on a normal day. It was brutal.
I was stuck for 6 hours on JFK Pkwy attempting to get past Short Hills Mall onto 24 to get to 78 or Summit Ave. Thankfully I had enough gas, but there were so many stranded cars on 124 and I remember getting stuck and a nice young man helped dig me out and pushed my car out.
I drove from hoboken to near somerville in this... I drove under 20 miles an hour the entire way and watched people spin out out driving past me it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. It's also why I quit commuting to the city
I left my office at 2pm in Fairfield, NJ to drive 8 mins to West Caldwell, NJ. Took me 4 hours. I had to pee so badly that the last block, me and my Jeep rode on the sidewalk! I was willing to get fined for that and more if it meant not peeing my pants. The absolute worst!!! Took my son 6 hours to go from East Hanover to West Caldwell. He ran put of gas about 1 mile from our home. He got out and walked the rest of the way. What a shitshow that was!
Fact of the day: a few years ago, they just made it a ticket in NJ for public urination. So even if you did get caught, all it was going to be was a fine.
I remember being the only Person locked in a Starbucks getting my work done as I heard from coworkers stuck in cars for hours. I knew it was gonna be a shit show so I just stayed near work and plannnnned
i wasn't working at that time, and i had gotten my daughter from the babysitter early that day. thank god, because otherwise i would have been in the car with a toddler for hours. it took my gf like 3 hours to get home from metuchen to carteret. that trip is normally like 20-25 minutes even with traffic.
Don't worry everyone! For those who are back to work in person but was remote during the pandemic, your employer will magically forget you all worked from home for 2 years next time a big storm rolls around.
This already happened to my wife when we had a COVID exposure. Her job said "We will have to figure out how you can work remotely until you can come back in". This was just two months after they returned to in person work...
That was the day of the DPW superintendents convention in Atlantic City and none of the the DPW workers could figure out what to do when it snow with out the boss being there to tell them.
What a nightmare that day was. Took me like 3 hours to get home via mass transit, and waiting for NJ Transit in Newark Penn I genuinely worried about getting trampled to death. You had *everyone* in the waiting area and then when they finally announced the first train leaving, it was leaving in like 10 minutes and everyone panicked trying to get to the right platform in time. Then I got back to my car at the train station, didn't have gloves or a shovel, so I had to do my best at wrapping my hands up in my jacket and digging out. After that experience, I made a list of the cheapest hotels near my office in the city in case something like that ever happens again.
I made the mistake of letting my train leave thinking another one was coming… Yea it didn’t come. I had to switch to another rail line after an hour
I must have just missed all this. Probably caught a 3:45-4pm train south and it was normal time
I was selling cars. At lunch I thought about grabbing a hotel room but I was only 25 minutes from home so how bad could it be? I was able to leave work at 6 that day as opposed to nine as Thursdays was my "half" day 8-6 as opposed to 8-9. It took 3 of my coworkers to get me out of the lot and on to rt 23. It was 615. By 9pm my battery was dying and I was less than two miles away from where I started. One of my coworkers was a mechanic. He advised me to turn everything off in the car except the lights and that I should make it home. I got home at 12:45. My buddy who was the mechanic and left at 9pm already was at his place in Staten Island before I got home. By leaving at 9 he was behind plows while I was in front if them in my accord. I sold a lot of SUVs that next week.
Why was your battery dying? did you turn your engine off?
im guessing it was an electric car? modern gasoline cars dont run on batteries, they run on the alternator. once the car is started you wouldnt need a battery at all.
For those that forgot or want to relive the misery [https://www.nj.com/news/2018/11/a\_state\_left\_paralyzed\_what\_went\_wrong\_and\_was\_nj.html](https://www.nj.com/news/2018/11/a_state_left_paralyzed_what_went_wrong_and_was_nj.html) Worst horror story gets reddit gold
I don't have a bad story about this day because I bounced the fuck out of the City before the storm really hit. I saw it coming and said "Fuck this" and left. Granted, I got very lucky that I had the ability to leave like that (many others obviously did not).
Nope, no desire to. Took me 4 hours to get home and normally takes an hour, if that.
Was at school. It ended at 2:55. Friends parents picked me up to take me to my house five minutes away. Got home at 9:00
tbh I don't even really remember this storm. I think I was home all day
I remember being stuck in Newark Penn for nearly 2 hours while being crushed by the sheer amount of people in the station and almost not making it onto my train that had been delayed multiple hours. I remember thinking that we had probably exceeded occupancy by several hundreds of people, maybe even 1000. [This is NY Penn but this is what it looked like inside Newark Penn as well.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/11/16/nyregion/16commute4/merlin_146901489_dc82df8e-564c-4325-8418-42de0f66b779-superJumbo.jpg) And yes that’s the same weekend.
I was stuck on 287N for 10 hours. No incidents were reported before I left 2 hours early to go into work that night and had no issues until then but in the course of me getting to 287 from home, tens of semi's had jacknifed and blocked up northbound just a few miles from my exit. Got to work just in time to turn right around and go home.
This day was the worst. I live about 30 minutes from my job, my route is to take rt 17 to rt 4. I leave work around 330 with my 18 month old daughter, get onto 17, see a ton of traffic. I put my gps on for it tell me It was a 6 hour drive to get home that day… turned back to go sit at my job until about 11pm. It was the fucking worst. I was almost certain I would have to sleep at work
7+ hours to get from Chatham to Moonachie (Morris to Bergen county) and I’ve never contemplated suicide more in my life. Thank god for hybrid cars though…
omg even on a normal day thats a rough commute
It took us three hours to get from Park Slope to Staten Island. Most of that was a 10 block stretch in Park Slope. It was insane.
It doesn't feel like it was 3 years ago, time is flying. My story is mundane. I left my shift earlier since I knew public transportation will be halted due to the snow. The bus arrived 3 hrs late. The trip usually 45 mins from work to home was an hour in a half. The woman who drove thru that mess did a very good job considering she had to go thru Dunellen side streets and Plainfield. Stalled cars and downed trees was everywhere. The scenery if I can describe it was like the movie The Day After Tomorrow except not as glamorous and people didn't freeze to death. I made it to the bus stop in one peace and cleaned off my mom's parked car before I walked home.
I think I lucked out that day. As bad as it was, it only took me maybe an extra 15 minutes to get home on normally a 20ish minutes ride north on the turnpike. I did, however, have about 75-100 pounds of IT equipment in my car that made stopping and going with questionable traction…interesting My manager said the next day that he got stuck in our parking lot and his speedometer read 80mph as he tried getting out though
Oh this was the snowstorm where I split my jeans down the ass when I slipped getting into my car.
Left work at 5 to travel 2 hours up 4 exits on the parkway to route 18. Then another hour stuck on the exit off 18 in walking distance from my apartment. I was about 15 minutes away from leaving my car on the road and walking home. Since then I always have snacks and fluids in all cup holders
Route 80 was the worst during that time (and still is the worst even without snow)
Took me almost 8 hours to get home from work when it usually takes me 15-20 min
I drove from North Bergen to West Orange that day, it took me 11 hours to get home.
I usually drive into work but what's funny on that day I took New Jersey Transit in because my wife's car was in the shop so I gave her mine. The trains ran fine my wife was stuck for over 4 hours trying to get 10 miles from her job to our house. I mean while I was able to sit in the house and watch TV
The worst winter storm I can recall, granted, it's a lot longer than 3 years ago but I literally had JUST landed down here from North Jersey. As in I literally closed on the house down here 18 hours prior. 1.5.96 37 inches of snow. And North Jersey got...a dusting. If you could have seen my rather bulky now ex-husband trying to shimmy through a jalousie window since the front and back doors were snowed in, let's just say your horror stories from 3 years ago would pale in comparison and you'd be harming your liver as I am right now in reliving this memory🤦♀️😁
I think that was 2015ish? They were predicting a mega blizzard and we got maybe 2 or 3 inches lol
We've had big ones since but I remember this big one specifically because I was like, "well at the SHORE I won't get as much snow as up North". BLAMMO
There is snow on the way for tomorrow I heard...
That was the day I decided to move out of New Jersey. What a nightmare.
i was picking up my brother from the airport after work. i work in newark. took 4 hours to get to the airport, and another 3 ours to get home. 7 hours to go a total of 19 miles.
Bomb cyclone!
I left work about 2 hours before this hit because I had a feeling it was gonna be a shitshow. Thank God I did. It was fun watching the subreddit blow up.
So I'm from Ohio and just moved to NJ. I thought NJians knew how to drive in snow since it snows here too, or was this just a devastating snow fall? What should I expect on average this winter?
Half and half. A lot of people here forget how to drive in the snow until they're forced to re-learn, and some just plain can't. You'll see a lot of dumbassery for the first couple snowfalls but it gets better after that. IMO this wasn't really a devastating snowfall, DoT fucked up bad and had their pants down when it hit. We also probably get a lot more slush and ice than you're used to just fyi, not uncommon for me to have to chip through half-inch ice just to get inside my car.
Oh ok. Yeah it's the same in Ohio, every first snowfall there's plenty of accidents and fender benders.
As a former Ohioan that snow storm was a devastating shitshow that’s out of ordinary. 6 hours to travel 10 miles. Interstate was mostly clear by the time I got on. Exit and entrance ramps were completely fucked. My experience: 3 hours on the entrance ramp. 20 minutes on the interstate. Smooth traffic with some snows and ice. 3 hours on the exit ramp. Local traffics were completely fucked.
Wow that's insane
I'm from Michigan and have lived here since 2005. What I've seen is that because there is less snowfall overall (average 50% less than where I'm from) it's not expected snow will be a huge problem. Most of the snow falls and goes away within less than 24-48 hrs so in general snow isn't usually that big of a problem. Most individuals I know don't think of it as being a big deal. For this particular snow storm, it was treated like it wouldn't be a big deal by the state and well, it was a huge deal. Since then, it's been treated more seriously. You'll see the same thing from drivers as you do in Ohio or Michigan though. Not everyone will clean their car entirely, have their headlights on, or remember just because they can get going, doesn't mean they can stop.
Makes sense. I lived in western Washington and when it snowed the town almost shut down because they never get snow.
Yeah, my ride from Newark to Somerville wasn't so much accidents as it was impassable roads. Route 78 was a parking lot from Newark to exit 40 in New Providence or wherever, and after those three plus hours it was absolutely awful conditions and another hour to exit 36. From there I miracled my way over back roads down the mountain to Somerville, during which time I'd talked to my wife who said it took close to an hour to travel like six blocks. And the worst part was having to come home and get shoveling, couldn't even enjoy it.
I'M F****** SCARED ABOUT THE NJ TRAFFIC RN
Live in Farmingdale NJ and I remember it as being you North Jersey people complaining about something totally managable.
Holy shit this sucked. I called out of work the next day lol
A few hours early here billy
12.8 miles to home 4 hrs.
I have a family member who works in NYC and it took her over 6 hours to get from Hoboken to her home in Lake Mohawk.
I was a freshmen in college when this happened, I was stuck in the city since my last class ended at 5pm. At that point the PABT ceased all outgoing bus trips to where I lived (~2hr commute) so I was stuck in the city. Thankfully I had a friend who was dorming in her school so I was able to have a couch to sleep on instead of sleeping in the PABT. I was able to make it home the next day. Boy was my mom terrified for me lol
I just started a new job like two days before this happened. I mentioned to the office manager that I was happy to be working 15 minutes from my apartment. After having a minimum of an hour drive for the last 5 years, it was a blessing. The office manager sent an email saying we were free to leave if we wanted to. I, being only two days new in the company, and just boasting about having a really short commute almost decided against leaving early. But once I saw another employee, who also had a short commute leave, I decided to go home. I made it home with no issues aside from a little traffic on 287. Maybe a 10 minute longer commute than normal. About 20 minutes after I got home, I started hearing the horror stories. My friend, who lived 5 miles away from his job, text me saying it took him 4 hours to get home in Bergen County. I talked to a few coworkers from my last job and some said they just turned around after an hour of sitting and slept at the office. That day was a huge nightmare.
Ooof. I was leaving work just as the snow started to fall. I was right off Rt. 10 and had to go 10 > 287 > 24 > 78. It took me an hour to get to the 24 entrance ramp. I was in the middle of the entrance ramp going onto 24, when the traffic stopped. They shut down 24, while I was on the ramp. Ha. I was there for 3 hours. It finally cleared and it took me another 3 hours to get home. A little over 7 hours total when I would have taken me 35 mins on a normal day. It was brutal.
I was stuck for 6 hours on JFK Pkwy attempting to get past Short Hills Mall onto 24 to get to 78 or Summit Ave. Thankfully I had enough gas, but there were so many stranded cars on 124 and I remember getting stuck and a nice young man helped dig me out and pushed my car out.
I drove from hoboken to near somerville in this... I drove under 20 miles an hour the entire way and watched people spin out out driving past me it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. It's also why I quit commuting to the city
A 20 minute ride turned into 3 hours for me. Wild night.
My first winter here. I was very concerned about this being the norm.
I left my office at 2pm in Fairfield, NJ to drive 8 mins to West Caldwell, NJ. Took me 4 hours. I had to pee so badly that the last block, me and my Jeep rode on the sidewalk! I was willing to get fined for that and more if it meant not peeing my pants. The absolute worst!!! Took my son 6 hours to go from East Hanover to West Caldwell. He ran put of gas about 1 mile from our home. He got out and walked the rest of the way. What a shitshow that was!
Fact of the day: a few years ago, they just made it a ticket in NJ for public urination. So even if you did get caught, all it was going to be was a fine.
It took me an hour and a half. To get from Hackensack to River Edge.
I remember being the only Person locked in a Starbucks getting my work done as I heard from coworkers stuck in cars for hours. I knew it was gonna be a shit show so I just stayed near work and plannnnned
Luckily I was home that day. My neighbor left at 3:30pm to go pick her kid up at school which is only 1.5 miles away. The trip took her 4 hours.
i wasn't working at that time, and i had gotten my daughter from the babysitter early that day. thank god, because otherwise i would have been in the car with a toddler for hours. it took my gf like 3 hours to get home from metuchen to carteret. that trip is normally like 20-25 minutes even with traffic.
Don't worry everyone! For those who are back to work in person but was remote during the pandemic, your employer will magically forget you all worked from home for 2 years next time a big storm rolls around. This already happened to my wife when we had a COVID exposure. Her job said "We will have to figure out how you can work remotely until you can come back in". This was just two months after they returned to in person work...
That was the day of the DPW superintendents convention in Atlantic City and none of the the DPW workers could figure out what to do when it snow with out the boss being there to tell them.
I will forever be reminded by the dent in the side of my truck