Motorists Stuck On I-80 Overnight As Snowstorm Shuts Down Southern Wyoming

A snowstorm shut down more than 200 miles of Interstate 80 on Monday, leaving motorists stranded for hours—some overnight—while a power outage crippled Rawlins. “I figured I was going to be here until tomorrow morning,” said trucker Zade Cyr after nearly 11 hours of waiting. “I’ve had reports of 30 inches of snow in Snowy Range,” said Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day.

Both westbound and eastbound lanes of I-80 between Rock Springs and Cheyenne were closed by 10:46 a.m. Wet, heavy snow and wind gusts up to 45 mph caused whiteout conditions, forcing drivers to stop where they could. The estimated reopening time for 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.

Rawlins resident Marianne Nelson usually has a 10-minute commute to the Wyoming State Penitentiary. She got on I-80 at 5:15 a.m. and had been stuck for nearly six hours by 11 a.m. “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.”

Jordan Young, WYDOT’s deputy public affairs officer, said a snowplow was struck, possibly by a semitruck, near the Wagonhound Rest Area between Arlington and Elk Mountain. “Plowing drifts from stuck and stopped vehicles can delay reopening the highway,” she said.

Meanwhile, intense winter weather damaged a power transmission line in Carbon County around 2 a.m., leaving Rawlins, Sinclair, and Wamsutter without power for most of the day. John Whitesides with Rocky Mountain Power said the outage was caused by a broken crossarm. “We have one transmission line that feeds those communities,” he said. “When we have a damaged line, there’s no power coming into homes and businesses.” The outage also hampered WYDOT’s efforts, as plows had to fuel up in Sinclair instead of Rawlins.

Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken set up an incident command post. Carbon County Search and Rescue was mobilized to provide emergency transport for anyone needing oxygen services to Memorial Hospital of Carbon County, which remained open. Bakken also faced an unexpected crisis: outgoing calls from the communications center to Verizon numbers were not going through, though all other service providers worked.

Whitesides said crews started restoration work at 3 p.m. Monday, with estimated restoration times of before 6 p.m. for Sinclair and before 7:30 p.m. for Rawlins. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the Arlington area, calling for another 2 to 6 inches of snow, and a Freeze Warning for south-central Wyoming overnight, with temperatures as low as 20 degrees expected. Young advised drivers to check the Wyoming 511 website and app for updates. “We try to get folks moving whenever we can, especially if we can get them moving away from the worst of the storm,” she said.