The snow began falling in the Triangle around noon, causing many who were still at work to quickly head out on the roads. That caused major gridlock across the region.
Hundreds if not thousands of motorists abandoned their vehicles along I-40 or the Raleigh Beltline or on the side of roads. Many walked home several miles through the snow.
Kesha Hudson was one of them. She’s a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill. She began her commute in her car but quickly decided to leave it in a grocery store parking lot. She caught a ride with a colleague before walking the last mile or so to her apartment in Southwest Durham.
"So we saw a lot of cars along the side of the road, we saw a mail truck stuck, we saw a guy get out of his car and use the bathroom," said Hudson. "Lots of people walking, sledding, making the most of it."
The trip usually takes Hudson about twenty minutes. By the time she got home, she had been on the road more than four hours.