motorists stranded – A blizzard shutting down Interstate 80 across southern Wyoming, combined with a Carbon County power outage, trapped hundreds of drivers on the highway for hours—including overnight. As WYDOT cleared drifting snow and utilities worked to repair damaged transmis
For the third morning in a row—only it wasn’t morning—drivers on Interstate 80 began their day with the same question: how long until the road opens?
By 10:46 a.m. Monday, both westbound and eastbound lanes of I-80 between Rock Springs and Cheyenne were closed to all through traffic. Heavy. wet snow quickly slicked the pavement with slush. and wind gusts up to 45 mph pushed visibility into whiteout conditions that forced motorists to stop and pull over where they could.
For at least some, the answer came slowly. Rawlins resident Marianne Nelson, who usually drives the roughly 10-minute commute to her job at the Wyoming State Penitentiary, said she got onto I-80 at 5:15 a.m. and by 11 a.m. had been trapped for nearly six hours.
“I’ve got three semitrucks parked in front of me,” she said. “I guess there’s a tow truck somewhere, but he’s stuck, too. I can’t see anything, and I only have a quarter of a tank of gas.”
More than 200 miles of Interstate 80 were closed for most of the day because of winter conditions. In some places along the highway. as much as 10 inches of snow was reported. and by noon WYDOT was clearing 4-foot drifts. WYDOT deputy public affairs officer Jordan Young said the agency was hearing about stuck vehicles between Laramie and Rock Springs. but there were no “hard numbers” yet. warning that plowing drifts from stuck and stopped vehicles could delay reopening.
The weather wasn’t just slowing traffic—it was disrupting the work meant to reopen it. Young said a WYDOT snowplow was struck. possibly by a semitruck. while clearing I-80 near the Wagonhound Rest Area between Arlington and Elk Mountain. He added that WYDOT was still getting specific details about the crash from the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
As of publication time Monday evening, the estimated reopening time for the westbound and eastbound lanes of I-80 between Rawlins and Laramie was between 6 and 8 a.m. Tuesday. Both lanes between Rawlins and Rock Springs were anticipated to reopen by midnight Tuesday.
But for some drivers, reopening didn’t come in time to avoid an overnight lockup.
Trucker Zade Cyr said he had been stuck on the eastbound lane of I-80 between Wamsutter and Rawlins for almost 11 hours when traffic finally began moving again.
“I figured I was going to be here until tomorrow morning,” he said.
By 5:30 p.m. Monday, both lanes between Rock Springs and Laramie were still closed, while the rest of the stretch—from east to Cheyenne and west to Evanston—was under a rolling closure until at least 10 p.m.
Cowboy State meteorologist Don Day said he had “reports of 30 inches of snow in Snowy Range.”
That forecast lined up with why authorities used a rolling closure approach. Even though Cheyenne had no significant snowfall Monday. Interstate 80 westbound was placed on a rolling closure so it would not overwhelm towns where snowfall had made highway passage impossible. The decision meant truckers were stranded as far away as Cheyenne and beyond.
Cam Geurgen, a driver from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, said he could move to Laramie County if it wasn’t for the weather.
“Truckers know your sheriff here. ” Geurgen said. incorrectly identifying Brian Kozak as “Bennie Lozak.” He said he’d heard about Kozak’s “Truck Around And Find Out” initiative on the internet and on talk radio. Geurgen described it as a way to remove “illegal drivers,” calling it “the best in the country at it.”.
The highway chaos was unfolding alongside another emergency: a significant power outage in Carbon County.
Around 2 a.m. Monday, an intense winter storm damaged a power transmission line in Carbon County. John Whitesides with Rocky Mountain Power said the outage was caused by a broken crossarm halfway between the Platte and Whiskey Peak substations. The first report came from Rawlins at 2:27 a.m.
“We have one transmission line that feeds those communities,” Whitesides said. “When we have a damaged line, there’s no power coming into homes and businesses.”
The outage left Rawlins, Sinclair, and Wamsutter without power for most of the day.
Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken set up an incident command post to keep residents informed as schools and businesses shut down for the day. He told residents that Carbon County Search and Rescue had been mobilized to provide emergency transport for anyone in need of oxygen services to Memorial Hospital of Carbon County in Rawlins. which remained open.
Even as officials managed those logistics, a communications problem complicated the situation. Bakken said Verizon was experiencing issues with outgoing calls from the communications center: incoming calls were being received without issues. but outgoing calls to Verizon numbers were not going through. Bakken said other providers—including AT&T and T-Mobile—were not experiencing the same problem.
Utility crews still had to reach the damaged line through roads made dangerous by snow and drifted visibility. Whitesides said the effort to restore power was hampered by the weather and closed roads that Rocky Mountain Power’s crews needed to reach the damaged line. Crews coordinated with the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office to clear those roads and reached the affected area as soon as possible.
“They started restoration work at 3 p.m. Monday,” Whitesides said. “The estimated restoration time was before 6 p.m. for Sinclair and before 7:30 p.m. for Rawlins.”
The power outage also directly affected the highway recovery. Bar Nunn resident Jodi Burrer told Cowboy State Daily that WYDOT’s clearing efforts were slowed because drivers couldn’t fuel up in Rawlins while the power was out.
“They couldn’t fuel up in Rawlins because the power was out,” Burrer said. “They had to get the plows to Sinclair to fill up.”
As the storm’s first wave passed, the forecast warned of what could come next.
By Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the Arlington area calling for another 2 to 6 inches of snow. The rest of southeast Wyoming was under a Winter Weather Warning for the entire day.
Late Monday brought another alert. The NWS issued a Freeze Warning for south-central Wyoming between 9 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. Tuesday, warning that overnight temperatures as low as 20 degrees were expected across much of the area affected by the day’s storm.
“The freeze warning area may experience near-record low temperatures between 12 to 28 degrees,” the NWS office in Cheyenne said. It added that freeze watches were in effect for Tuesday night for zones east of the Laramie Range and includes most of Converse County. running through 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.
With reopening times shifting based on wind, drifting, and visibility, officials urged drivers not to assume a set deadline. Young said the best way for drivers to stay informed was to keep checking the Wyoming 511 website and app.
“We update that 24/7,” Young said. “Some sections (of I-80) have different reopening times based on a variety of factors, including wind, drifting, visibility and more. We try to get folks moving whenever we can.”
By the end of Monday, the picture was clear: southern Wyoming had been shut down by a blizzard that closed I-80, stranded motorists for hours—some overnight—and knocked out power in Carbon County, while crews worked against both weather and broken infrastructure to get roads and lights back on.
Interstate 80 blizzard Wyoming Department of Transportation WYDOT Carbon County outage Rawlins Sinclair Wamsutter Wyoming 511 National Weather Service Freeze Warning motorists stranded