LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On Wednesday, March 4, 2020, the sun was shining with temperatures reaching 60 degrees. But five years ago, snow was coming down that would leave a mess of Interstate 65 in Kentucky.
The snow storm started out like any other, but it ended in a way most have never seen before.
“I guess it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Sara Lampkin said back in 2015. "You get stuck in a snowstorm on I-65."
Another person who remembers the storm all too well is WDRB News reporter Lexie Ratterman.
“Everyone started hitting their brakes," Ratterman said. "And I was coming to a slow stop, and I didn't know what was going on, and I couldn't see what was ahead of me. It was dark. Sleet was coming down pretty heavily, and the roads were starting to get slick,."
She had nearly no gas, her phone was dying, and she had no charger.
“It was honestly, to this day, still the most terrifying moments of my life,” she said.
About 300-plus cars became stranded in the storm on the interstate. The Kentucky National Guard responded, along with local emergency management agencies, passing out food, water and even gas to keep cars running.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said the snow just couldn't be cleaned up fast enough after crashes at the start of the snowfall.
Truck sliding off snowy roads from March 2015 snow storm.
“Again, it's just a perfect storm," KYTC spokesman Chris Jessie said in 2015. "It's a perfect circumstance of not being able to get there. We did the best we could."
Ratterman kept warm by layering up with laundry she had in her backseat.
“I sat in that traffic, completely stopped for 12-13 hours,” she said.
A semi driver named Richard was letting people warm up in his truck, and she used his phone to call her mom.
“When I finally got home, Richard called my mom — because he had her number still in his phone — and called and wanted to make sure that I made it home," she said. "And it was the sweetest thing ever."
The snow started March 4, 2015, and by 5 a.m., March 6, 2015, the last vehicle was cleared from the interstate.
“Hopefully, it won’t ever happen again to anybody, but you never know,” Lampkin said.
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