UPDATE: I-65 in Hart Co., Ky. slowly returning to normal after massive traffic jam

UPDATE: As of 9:27 a.m. on Friday, March 6, I-65 northbound is back open. I-65 southbound is down to one lane.

By Toni Konz and Travis Ragsdale

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- As darkness fell on Hart County Thursday night, The National Guard was out working to clear the mess on Interstate 65.

Once the traffic has been cleared through exit 76, a KSP dispatcher says they will shut down I-65 at exit 65 in order to send salt and plow trucks through.

Road treatment crews have not been through that section yet, so State Police say the goal is to clear traffic and then clear the road.

Police say they are still waiting on another large wrecker to clear one of the jackknifed semi-trucks near mile marker 76, so traffic is moving slowly.

UPDATE (8:30 p.m.): National Guard Humvees began arriving in the area about seven p.m. and crews started working on a plan to get cars moved before the temperature dropped drastically overnight.

The road is still blocked between mile marker 75 and 71 northbound between Upton and Bonnieville due to two jackknifed tractor-trailers.

Crews were able to clear exit 71 at Bonnieville, so people south of that were able to get off the interstate and go around the blockage. But there is no exit between 71 and 75 leaving many drivers still stranded there.

Ashley Murray has been stuck on I-65 northbound near mile marker 72. He says he hasn't had anything to eat and is almost out of gas. He's traveling from Alabama trying to get to Louisville and says he hasn't seen too many emergency officials.

Officials south of Elizabethtown were preparing for the possibility of transporting stranded motorists on I-65 to a nearby elementary school for shelter overnight. However, officials told WDRB that would not be necessary.

"We are conducting welfare checks on vehicles and if we cannot open up the interstate, we have the option of opening a shelter at Bonnieville Elementary School," said Kerry McDaniel earlier in the evening, director of the Hart County Emergency Management Agency, who was stationed on Interstate 65 at the 71 mile marker. "We would go and pick them up, they would have to leave their vehicles on the highway."

McDaniel said he knows drivers are getting anxious and noted that many emergency responders have been working since 8 p.m. Wednesday to clear accidents and rescue stranded motorists.

"There has been some movement on I-65 north of here, but there has been very little -- if any -- movement where we are," he said. "We are so close, but so far away."

Chris Jessie, a spokesman with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 4 in Elizabethtown, said crews are slowly making progress in clearing traffic jams along Interstate 65. Nearly two feet of snow fell in parts of Hart, Hardin and LaRue counties.

"Today has been a story of incremental improvement, alternating with new setbacks," Jessie said. "For example, an all-night blockage of I-65 was beginning to clear by noon today, only to be temporarily thwarted on the northbound side when two commercial trucks jackknifed at mile markers 71 and 75 in Hart County."

The Red Cross set up a warming center at the Prichard Community Center in E-town to help people after they spent several hours inside their vehicles in Hardin County.

One man we spoke with says he was driving home from a construction job in Indiana when he got stuck on I-65. Jacob Rathbun told WDRB the heat went out soon after.

“My jacket -- that was the only thing keeping us warm,” Rathbun said.

He told WDRB he was stuck inside the truck for about 14 hours and was picked up about 11 a.m. Thursday morning.

Late Thursday evening, the Prichard Center in E-town said it had about 20 people there, and another 15 were on their way.

Authorities closed a warming center in Radcliff late Thursday afternoon.

"Our main concern is in Hart County," Jessie told WDRB News at four p.m. Thursday. "We realize we only have a few hours of daylight left and that we are going to be facing sub-zero temperatures."

"We are working every available resource we have to get these people out of there before dark," he said.

McDaniel estimated between 300-400 vehicles were stuck on the interstate Thursday evening and "90 percent of those are commercial motor vehicles."

This story will be updated.

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Reporter Antoinette Konz can be reached at 502-585-0838 or @tkonz on Twitter.