After Rockhurst students completed their end-of-semester final exams, many were excited to head home for the Christmas holiday. For anyone traveling Friday throughout the Midwest, it was anything but an easy trek home.

Students traveling to the St. Louis and Omaha, Neb. areas experienced major headaches on the roads. Falling temperatures throughout the day Friday along with freezing mist and drizzle caused many students and parents to worry about safety.

Travel along Interstate 70 in Missouri was especially treacherous Friday. Columbia, Mo. was a hotspot for troubles on the road, with heavy congestion from University of Missouri students attempting to leave town for their break, as well.

For some Rockhurst students on their way from Kansas City to St. Louis, it took as much as five and a half hours to reach Columbia from Kansas City.

“I left [Kansas City] at 11:30,” said Anna Lister, ’18. “Basically if you left after 9:30, you were screwed.”

Lister, who was traveling home with a couple other friends, says that she stayed with a friend in Columbia overnight Friday to avoid driving on I-70. “By 5:30 p.m. every hotel between Columbia and Kingdom City was booked,” according to Lister. “We called them all.”

Some students chose to stay at hotels in Columbia (if they could find an open room) to avoid the road conditions. Others, though, toughed it out.

Lauren Miller, ’18, said she left Rockhurst at 10 a.m. and made it to Columbia in a reasonable time, but when she left after stopping for lunch, she was stuck at mile marker 130 on I-70 for about two hours. “I didn’t have any water or food, but thankfully I had enough gas,” Miller said. An accident near Kingdom City closed I-70 eastbound for nearly two hours.

Just about everyone on the roads Friday were frustrated, and many directed that frustration at the Missouri Department of Transportation, or MoDOT. “After two hours a salt truck came through and salted one lane, but it didn’t really do much,” Miller said. “Even the pickup truck in front of me was sliding, so I knew I had to go slow.

“At Wentzville, a big tractor trailer was jackknifed and I had to stop quick and slid into the car next to me,” Miller added. Thankfully, she was okay and her car suffered no damages. 12 hours after leaving Kansas City, she made it to her South County home in St. Louis.

MoDOT crews closed parts of I-70 at times yesterday so they could treat the roads. They didn’t appear to make much of a difference, though. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that MoDOT had issues keeping up with the icy roads. Shaunda White, a MoDOT spokeswoman, said they had pretreated roads before noon but had “to play catch up” to treat roads as their conditions worsened, according to the Post-Dispatch.

Some students who waited out the conditions on Friday were caught in icy conditions in the Kansas City area Saturday morning. MoDOT crews closed I-70 in both directions this morning due to icy conditions in Blue Springs, Mo. (east of downtown Kansas City).

Winter weather is expected once again throughout the afternoon and evening today. Kansas City may see up to two inches of snow, while the St. Louis-metro area could see an inch or less of snow, mixed in with freezing drizzle as temperatures fall.

Were you stuck on the roads while heading home for break? If so, we want to hear from you. Comment below, or find us on Facebook and Twitter.