Thanksgiving Travelers Get Early Jump On NJ Turnpike To Beat Storm
By Cleve Bryan
CHERRY HILL, N.J.(CBS)--Going home for the holidays is happening a little sooner than usual this year as travelers worried about a pre-Thanksgiving storm are hitting the road two days before turkey day.
Mary Beth Diliberto says, "My son is a metereologist and he told us 'please leave on Tuesday because Wednesday is going to be horrendous.'"
By midday Tuesday the skies were already gray and rain made for wet travel.
Kurt Gruninger from Trenton says,"So far pretty good actually, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be, little bit of traffic but I think we're beating it so far."
Travel experts AAA predict despite the bad weather the number of travelers this Thanksgiving will be about the same as last year.
Tessa Sneeringer from Vermont says, "The storm last night was predicted to be hitting this afternoon, but we checked this morning and it was starting earlier than expected so we got on the road."
AAA says more than 1 million New Jerseyans will travel 50 miles or more from home.
On the bright side, gas prices are at the lowest levels in three years - the average price is $3.21 a gallon.
It's great news especially for those who have a long way to go.
Sarah Schmidt is traveling a long distance, "New Hampshire to South Carolina. That's a long one, especially with two little ones."
Public Works crews throughout New Jersey have been getting prepared.
Tom Daghini, Atlantic County Director of Roads and Bridges says,"It's especially bad with all of the leaves that are down between the wind and once you get the rain it will start washing the leaves back onto the inlet, so a lot of what we've been doing the last two days we're going to be doing again tomorrow."
New Jersey State Police offer advice to bring food and drink for the car ride, because you may be sitting in traffic for awhile.
Last year
