Heavy snowfall in the Sierra Nevada shut down Interstate 80 in both directions from Colfax to the Nevada border on Wednesday night, leaving traffic backed up for miles and many travelers stranded.
Drivers within the closure area were forced to pull to the side of the road and wait out the snowstorm, some sitting in their vehicles for hours. The California Highway Patrol called for the closure in the early afternoon. Both lanes reopened Thursday between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m.
Peggy Evanoika of Truckee said she had been parked on the shoulder since about 1:30 p.m. She and dozens of others holed up in their vehicles near a Shell gas station in Nyack.
"I've lived in Truckee for 45 years, and this is the first time I didn't plan it right," she said. "I gave them all kinds of excuses, but they wouldn't let me through."
