As the father of three young children, Richard Downs has thrown an awful lot of birthday parties. But it's likely that he'll never forget the day that his son turned 8.
After celebrating Wednesday at Pizza Hut and Cold Stone Creamery in Glen Burnie, Downs, his wife, son and two daughters, ages 5 and 11, were stranded for more than six hours after the city was whomped with a snowstorm that left highways and local streets impassable.
"I sure did hate to leave the van," said the 34-year-old Downs, who works for the Maryland Environmental Service. "But I wanted to get my family home safely."
The family was among the 1,000 motorists who were stranded between Northern Parkway and the Baltimore County line during Wednesday evening's rush hour after 8 inches of snow fell on the city in the space of just a few hours, and a series of accidents halted traffic.
Some ditched their cars after running out of gas. Others predicted, correctly, that the roads weren't about to be plowed anytime soon and left for home — or a nearby hotel — on foot.
Downs' van was one of 285 abandoned cars that were towed overnight, according to Khalil Zaied, director of the Baltimore Department of Transportation. City crews removed 32 cars from the northbound Jones Falls and brought gas to nine others.
Tow trucks took some of the vehicles to nearby parking spots, but the majority were deposited in the lot adjoining Polytechnic Institute at Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane. Motorists could pick up their vehicles there Thursday free of charge.
The family van, a dark blue 2000 Dodge Caravan, got stuck for good in front of a Loyola University dormitory on Cold Spring Lane, and the family walked a few blocks to a nearby gas station.
"They let us inside where it was warm, but they wouldn't let anyone use the bathroom," Downs said. "It was horrible."
About 11 pm, a good Samaritan whom Downs knows only as "Rod" volunteered to drive the family to their home in Towson.
"He was a total gentleman," Downs said. "He didn't even ask for any money, but I insisted on giving him $20. He kept saying, 'This is a blessing, this is a blessing.'"
At some point during the night, the van was taken to the Polytechnic lot, where Downs later retrieved it.
A steady stream of motorists pulled into the paved parking square Thursday, driven by family members, neighbors or friends. The lot became more than just a clearinghouse for temporarily abandoned vehicles. It became a repository of stories about how inconvenient, frustrating and even scary it can be to be trapped in your car during a Baltimore snowstorm.
Suzan Cozzolino of Hunt Valley said she became stuck on the Jones Falls Expressway just south of Mount Royal Avenue. She'd been sitting in her car for about three hours when three Baltimore police detectives came by and gave her a lift back to her office in the city.
"I would've spent the night sleeping in my car," said Cozzolino, who retrieved her auto Thursday with the help of her daughter, Macey, a junior at the University of Delaware. "I'm really grateful to those three city police detectives who assisted me."
And Jan Richmond's nearly seven-hour commute would have been even longer — and potentially life-threatening — if it hadn't been for a fellow motorist who gave him a lift for part of the way.
Richmond, 56, has diabetes. Less than 30 minutes after leaving his job at the Sheppard Pratt health center, his black 2002 Ford Focus became hopelessly stuck in a snowdrift near Falls Road and Northern Parkway, and he began the long trek to his home in West Baltimore.
"I didn't have food with me, and I didn't have my medicine," he said. "While I was walking, I began to get blurred vision, and that's not good."
For diabetics, fuzzy eyesight can be a symptom of low blood sugar. If the situation isn't remedied, convulsions or a coma can result.
Richmond considered seeking medical care at nearby Sinai Hospital. But when he reached Greenspring Avenue, the road into the complex was icebound and impassable.
"A guy drove up and said that he needed extra weight in his car, so would I please get in," Richmond said.
"He was able to take me as far as Wabash Avenue, and I walked the last two miles. Even so, I didn't get home until 20 minutes to one. The first thing I did was get something to eat."
Susan Zapalowicz, 51, normally spends about 45 minutes driving from her Mount Washington office to her home in Bel Air. But though she left work about 6 p.m. on Wednesday, it would take her roughly 24 hours to make it to her front door.
She decided against leaving work early Wednesday, which put her on the road at the height of rush hour, when the storm was at its worst.
"Most of my co-workers, they were, like, 'Come on, come on, it's really bad out there,'" Zapalowicz recalled with a rueful laugh. "And I was like, 'No, I'll wait.' It's the dumbest thing I ever did."
