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PARKERSBURG - Parkersburg resident Rosemarie Coe was one of hundreds of motorists stranded on the West Virginia Turnpike for hours over the weekend during a winter blizzard that caused snow-covered roads and car accidents.

Coe, her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren left for Charlotte, N.C., around 4 p.m. Friday to attend a family birthday party. By 6 p.m., they were stranded in more than 10 miles of backed-up traffic in the southbound lane, several miles from the Beckley exit.

For 16 hours, they sat in the southbound lane of the state turnpike (Interstate 77), periodically calling emergency officials for traffic updates. A tractor-trailer accident on the turnpike near Beckley caused miles of backed-up cars, leaving hundreds of motorists stranded Friday night and into Saturday morning.

"After two hours of not moving at all, we called the traffic emergency line and we were told there was an accident ahead and they were working on getting it cleared," Coe said Tuesday. "Three hours after that, we had not moved an inch. We tried calling again, but nobody seemed to know what was going on."

Gov. Joe Manchin declared a state of emergency for the entire state of West Virginia Friday in response to the storm, which knocked down a radio tower Friday evening, making it difficult for road crews to communicate.

"We had gone through two toll booths before we hit the traffic," said Coe. "The toll workers should have told motorists about the accident and directed them to turn around. The most frustrating thing through the whole ordeal was the lack of information we were getting."

Traffic on the northbound lane of Interstate 77 was moving slowly, but a lack of turnaround points and heavy snow made it unsafe for cars in the southbound lane to turn around.

Coe said she was told over the phone by emergency officials to periodically turn the car off and on and try to stay warm.

From 6 p.m. Friday until 10:30 Saturday morning, the family was stranded, along with hundreds of other motorists. Coe's grandchildren, 6-year-old Hailey and 11-year-old Devon, ate the two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that were packed for the trip, but the family had no water.

Coe and her daughter-in-law, Darla Coe, napped throughout the night.

"I was just planning on stopping along the way for water, so we didn't pack any," said Coe. "Fortunately, the kids were excellent. They slept through most of the night, and kind of saw the whole thing as an adventure. But I was worried about losing power in our cell phones and running out of gas or getting hungry and thirsty."

Motorists stranded in the southbound lane did what they could to help each other out, said Coe.

"I did see a lot of people helping each other out. We talked to a lot of people who were in their cars next to us. Someone in front of our car offered us water and Diet Coke, and a nice man in an 18-wheeler truck charged up my daughter-in-law's cell phone," she said.

Throughout the 16 hours, Coe said, she only saw one state police vehicle driving on the berm. The car did not stop as motorists tried flagging it down, she said.

"When we finally got home, we heard that trucks were sent out delivering water and blankets, but we didn't see one truck," she said. "The whole time I was thinking, surely someone will come and help. But no one did."

At 9:30 a.m. Saturday, traffic began moving again, and the family headed to Beckley where they ate a big meal and turned around, heading north back to Parkersburg. They returned at 5 p.m., almost 24 hours after they began their journey.

"We drove 300 miles in 24 hours," she said. "I don't want to go through that again."

Since the incident, Manchin said he has spoken to several agencies about the state's handling of the situation. Officials proposed several ways to avoid backups in the future, such as installing gates in sections of the turnpike where concrete barriers block motorists from escaping.