Submitted by Fox First at Ten on January 8th
SPOKANE, Wash – The heavy Monday morning snowfall caught a lot of people off guard – and caused a lot of problems.
One of the many slippery hills was at Lincoln & 5th in Spokane, where car after car slid down the hill, hoping to be able to stop at the bottom. For those not behind the wheel, it was all about shoveling or snow blowing.
"I was actually going through my car last night just fine, and then I woke up and we get pummeled with snow," said Chris Souza, who had to shovel out his car near Cedar & 18th to get to the grocery store for his kids.
But while the KHQ cameras were rolling, another car got stuck, nearly hitting his.
And just across the street, his neighbor Ryan Stoker was also digging out, after the plows piled up a problem.
"So any time the snow plows come by, which is 3 or 4 times a day I have to come right out and shovel or it turns to concrete, and look at this car, it's stuck," he said. "I mean, if I had a medical emergency and had to get out of the house in no time flat, I'm stuck, I'm not getting out."
But he concedes, there really isn't a better solution. It is the responsibility of homeowners to shovel their own driveways and sidewalks – even after the plows come by.
Stoker had already spent three hours shoveling out his car, but as for his wife's? He needed to call a tow truck to get it out of their steep driveway.
"Four wheel drive doesn't even get us out of the driveway here," he said. "I dinged up the front corner and the other side, bounced it off the house twice and figured, before I do any more damage I'll just call a tow truck."
After a few minutes of pulling, it worked. But then the tow truck got stuck on Cedar, and could have used a tow itself, as the calls for service began to stack up on this winters day in "Snowkane."
