Douglas County School Bus Drivers Help Stranded Drivers After Blizzard
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- Schools in Douglas County were closed on Thursday after the Bomb Cyclone brought unprecedented blizzard conditions to Colorado. But school buses were still running, not for students but for stranded drivers.
"For me it's a no-brainer. You jump up. You go do it," said Maurice Toole.
Maurice and a crew of bus drivers came in on Wednesday and Thursday, the snow days, to help rescue drivers stranded in the blizzard.
"It was pretty bad. The cars piled up in the middle of the I-25 gap project. Cars were stranded on the side of the road. We were just grabbing people off the side of the road as we passed them."
Maurice says he estimates his drivers rescued more than 500 people Wednesday.
On Thursday, he was transporting the people he rescued back to their cars. Then they started the arduous task of digging themselves out.
Even though Maurice is tired from working long hours on his days off, he says if he had to do it all over again he would.
"When things happen like this communities and people rally around each other and that's exactly what we did," he said. "I did what I enjoy. We enjoy this job."
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis declared an emergency on Wednesday and some stranded drivers had to be taken to emergency shelters by Colorado National Guard crews and other rescue teams. Some vehicles remained on the sides of the interstates on Thursday, but most had been removed by the afternoon.
