Jan Wesner Childs
As winter weather moved in and road conditions rapidly deteriorated around Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday, local teacher Vesta Wynkoop watched a school bus in front of her get stuck.
Wynkoop rolled down her car window to offer her assistance to the bus driver, who was stranded on Highway 26 near the Oregon Zoo.
"He asked if I would please just come on the bus to help with the kids, which I did," Wynkoop recounted in an interview Friday.
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She thought it would take maybe 30 minutes for help to arrive. Instead, it was 5 hours.
“In a heartbeat, it just got so bad, people couldn't get down the freeway, people couldn't get to the bus," Wynkoop said.
The weather was from Winter Storm Piper, which dumped 10 inches of snow on some areas around the city.
The 25 or so kids on board ranged in age from kindergartners to high school seniors. All were students at Catlin Gabel School, a private school in Portland. Wynkoop teaches second grade at another school in the area.
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Older kids comforted the younger ones. A high school science teacher who stopped to help handed out snack bars. Wynkoop said she had the kids write journal entries, and reassured them help was on its way.
"I told them that their bus driver was working diligently to try and find a way for somebody to come and rescue us," she said.
Every once in awhile, the bus driver turned on the engine to warm everyone up. Outside temperatures dropped to freezing. The students were kept buckled in their seat belts.
"We were watching lots of cars around us run into the wall or crash into each other," Wynkoop said. "We were fortunate in that we never got hit or pushed off the road, but, that possibility existed."
By the next morning, roadways were littered with vehicles abandoned by their drivers.
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Hours after their ordeal started, parents who live nearby walked the kids through a highway tunnel to a neighborhood. There, they were picked up by family members, according to The Oregonian.
Wynkoop continued her commute home. Normally, it would take her 15 minutes from that point, but this time it was an hour and 20 minutes.
"It was a very, very good and rewarding feeling for me to be on the bus with those kids," she said.
"It really gave me an awesome feeling of renewed respect and hope for the future because these kids were amazing."
(Paul Matadeen contributed to this report.)
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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