‘I was stuck for nine hours’: Dozens of drivers stranded on impassable roads west of London, Ont.

Drivers were stranded on Highway 402 after a snowstorm hit the region Friday night. CTV London's Brent Lale reports.

It is chaos on the roads in Lambton and Middlesex Counties.

Dozens of vehicles are stuck in the ditch, and drivers and passengers have been stranded for hours, waiting for emergency vehicles and tow truck operators to rescue them.

“There was just blowing snow all over the place,” said Chad Wilson, a truck driver coming from Michigan who was detoured off the closed 402 near Sarnia.

“I turned down London Line because I thought it was the best option, and unfortunately, I ended up getting stuck there for just a little over nine hours.”

OPP closed several roads from London to Sarnia because of the drifting and blowing snow.

“That significant weather event that passed through some of our communities in southwestern Ontario, well, it’s caused a few issues,” said Const. Ed Sanchuk on OPP social media.

“Highway 402 is currently closed, all east and westbound lanes, from Sarnia to the 401, and from the 401 split to the 402 is closed. You cannot use the 402.”

Sanchuk assured drivers stuck on the highway while it is closed have resources coming, but there are close to 150 calls in the queue.

Andrew Lundy was stuck for more than six hours overnight.

“They (OPP) said, ‘if you’ve got a decent amount of gas, just keep your engine running,’” said Lundy, a shuttle driver.

“I cleared away the tailpipe, so I didn’t die of carbon monoxide, and I just waited.”

He said after daylight a bunch of people got out of their vehicles, and he was the last in line, so they tried to get him out.

“Myself and five guys, including a guy that lived nearby, we put down my winter carpets under the wheels, and off I went,” he said.

However, even when he was free from the ditch, he couldn’t return to his home of Ipperwash.

“There are no roads that will take me home that are open,” said Lundy.

“There’s a few that aren’t officially closed but are impassable. There are cars that are stopped and they’re saying, ‘don’t come down here.’”

OPP have opened warming stations in several Lambton County communities including Watford, where close to 20 stranded motorists are located.

Local residents with four-wheel drive trucks, along with OPP and members of the local fire department, helped get people to the community centre.

“We are ready, here to help them out and to communicate to them what the current road conditions are,” said Todd Case, mayor of Warwick Township.

“We have our Optimist Club here that’s here looking after people to make sure they’re fed and looked after.”

Case said public works crews are plowing where they can, but with impassable roads, they have a lot of stranded vehicles who will have to wait until help can get to them.

“The biggest conditions we’re dealing with right now is the drifting snow and the high winds,” said Case.

“With all the snow that came in last night, it’s making a lot of the roads impassable. We have roads within our community that are shut down in both directions. So, there’s really not a path for anybody to go anywhere.”

Community members are calling this the biggest storm since ‘Snowmageddon’ in December of 2010.

“We were literally here stranded for three or four days back then,” said Case.

“This doesn’t even hold a candle to that, but this is just one of those situations with the weather the way it is today, that you just never know.”

Lundy, who was stuck, disagrees with that assessment.

“It might even be worse than 2010,” he said.

“I called the OPP and I told the guy what was going on. He said he’s been here 25 years, and he has never seen it worse, including 2010. I think we’re talking hundreds of calls (to 911), and I can’t get home yet. The tow truck companies are saying there’s still over 150 people that are waiting to be towed and some of them have been out there for 10 to 12 hours. It’s bad.”

Most roads were reopened in Lambton County around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. But, Highway 402 westbound lanes were still closed between Nauvoo Road and Highway 401.

In an updated road closure post on Saturday morning, OPP reminded of the following closures:

• Highway 21 from Amberley to Port Elgin
• Bruce Road 3 from Paisley to Highway 21
• Ilderton Road from Denfield Road to Ilderton
• Towerline Road from Muir Road to Oxford Road 14

According to Ontario 511, Highway 21 is also closed between Dashwood Road/County Road 83 in Grand Bend and Mill Road in Bayfield.