Residents and visitors in Colorado mountain town of Georgetown make the most out of Interstate 70 shutdown and snow accumulation
Amidst a brutal Colorado snowstorm and in the middle of Georgetown's empty roads was where you could find young residents like Lailah Platt and Alexya Marrone on Thursday making the most out of a snowy situation.
"We just looked outside and we were like, 'Oh my gosh, it's so much snow'," said Platt. "And then we wanted to go have fun. So, here we are."
Both kids said they decided to go sledding after seeing how much snow had accumulated in town throughout the night.
"I'm just staying here, having fun and hoping for the best," said Platt.
That is what other people were hoping for as early as Wednesday night, when heavy snowfall forced Interstate 70 to shut down from Morrison through Silverthorne, leaving some travelers with no choice but to hunker down in Georgetown.
"First time I've seen this much snow," said Aidan Logvinov, who was also sledding around the town's empty streets. "We're originally from Jacksonville, Florida, (but) we're out here to ski. We were going to go to Loveland."
Some visitors took to Guanella Pass and used it to do some ski and snowboarding runs.
"Oh yeah, big time," said Zachary Torbett. "This is probably the first for me. We're from the East Coast, so we don't get massive snowstorms out there."
"We dropped through the trees and up and down some cliffs and stuff," said Jonathan Barratt.
I-70 in both directions remained closed until late Thursday afternoon.
"We're coming from south Florida, from Fort Lauderdale," said Anthony Digirolamo. "We were following a heavy rig and we followed his route and he brought us here basically, so it worked out great."
Despite discouragement from those who could not get to their destinations as quickly as they hoped, CBS Colorado spoke to many who still kept their spirits up as the town's law enforcement and Colorado State Patrol made sure people got on and off the road safely.
"It went as smooth as we could've hoped to go. There was very little congestion in town. We were able to open up a couple of shelters," said Jon Gaskins, Georgetown's Marshall.
