Many are aware of the people who were trapped in their vehicles on Interstate 95 in Virginia in January, stranded with only whatever supplies they had on hand or could reach on foot for around 24 hours, but the stories from those who went through the ordeal keep coming out.
“Abandoned cars everywhere, there were trucks on the side of the road, people were at one point getting up and leaving their cars, bringing their backpacks with them,” Moni Chow, one of the people stranded on the highway, told WJLA-TV.
“We were kind of trapped in the middle, surrounded by other cars, so we couldn’t drive anywhere,” Zoe Tham, a friend traveling with Chow, added. “There were no bathrooms, there was nothing along that stretch, so even if you wanted to get out of your car and go somewhere, there was nowhere to go.”
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Officials brought water for the stranded drivers, but it added insult to injury for some.
“They passed out water,” Maurice Watson said. “What is water going to do? I ain’t ate in 24 hours, I ran out of gas, I called [the Virginia Department of Transportation] six times. No one came! This is an outrage. This is how you treat your taxpayers?”
John Noe and Casey Holihan were also stuck in their car near Quantico. The husband and wife had been in the vehicle for over 20 hours when they decided to go out on a limb and try something.
A truck belonging to the Schmidt Baking Company was also stranded on the road, and as the hours passed and it became clear they’d be there a while longer, they started thinking about food.
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“After almost 21 hours of being stuck on 95 South, sleeping here over night, not having access to food or water, and all of the nearest towns being out of power we were tired, frustrated, and hungry,” Holihan posted on Facebook.
“Many of the people stuck out here had small children, were elderly, had pets in the car, and hadn’t eaten in almost a whole day.
“We reached out to Schmidt Baking Company and begged them to open their truck that was stuck out here with us. We didn’t think it would actually work, but less [than] 20 minutes later we got an incredible suprise.
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“We received a personal call from the owner of the company Chuck who contacted the driver. This driver Ron Hill opened the back of the truck and with the help of some people close by passed out bread to more than 50 cars who were all incredibly thankful.”
Armed with sliced sandwich bread and potato rolls, the couple finally had something to eat — and so did dozens of others, all because someone asked.
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Holihan made sure to post photos of the act of kindness and publicly thank everyone behind the generous donation.
“This is an incredible thank you to Schmidt Baking Company for your humanity and compassion,” she wrote.
“This was one of the kindest moments I have ever witnessed. Thank you Schmidt.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.