RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Soo Keith, who moved to Raleigh from Chicago, said she left work about 12:30 p.m., thinking she would have plenty of time to check on some dogs that she cares for and get home before the worst of the snow hit.
She was wrong.
Keith drove for about two hours, getting just a few miles, before she was stuck in congestion. She rolled down her window and asked a police officer who walking nearby to help her park her car in a safe place. Then, she started walking the approximately five miles to her home and her two children, ages 14 and 12.
She compared the scene to one from the movie “Dr. Zhivago.”
“My face is all frozen, my glasses are all frozen, my hair is all frozen,” she said as she walked the final mile home.
Keith was wearing a heavy coat and sensible shoes for the snow but no hat or gloves. Fortunately, she keeps blankets in her car so she draped one of those over her for her hike.
“I moved here from Chicago; I know how to drive in the snow,” she said. But this storm “came on suddenly and everyone was leaving work at the same time,” she said. “I don’t think anybody did anything wrong; the weather just hit quickly. And there aren’t enough plows to clear the snow.”
Before Keith parked her car, she did manage to roll down her window and yell out advice to fellow drivers: Don’t gun your engine, tap your accelerator. And tap your brakes as well if you have to stop.
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