Hotel guests snowed in after attending wedding the night before historic winter storm

NORTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The Hampton Inn off the Turnpike in North Huntingdon Township has several guests snowed in.

The staff took it upon themselves to make sure their extended stay is enjoyable.

“I was like, do I really want to do another nine-hour drive through an arguably historic weather event? So…here we are,” said Benjamin Pallack.

Pallack is one of several wedding guests snowed in after his friend’s wedding Saturday night. He said he did not want to make the 9-hour trip home to Albany, New York in the snow, but he also did not want to miss his friend’s once-in-a-lifetime event.

“I wasn’t going to miss that. Absolutely not,” said Pallack.

Brandon Leone is one of the nine staff members who volunteered to stay several nights at the hotel in order to take care of the guests.

“I’ve been stuck in snowstorms before, but being in a hotel is a different story. We are all in this together,” said Leone. “We’ve got to take care of the guests, make the most of it, pack some sleds...Going to have some fun and just do what we do!”

The manager, Katie Baldassaro, said she felt bad that so many of the guests were stuck. So, she decided to cook for everyone.

“We’re actually having a blast, I mean, what are you gonna do, you know?” said Baldassaro.

She prepared pizza and wraps for everyone to enjoy while they watched the snow climb above the tires on their cars.

I’m always feeding the staff, and you know, just growing up in the business," said Baldassaro. “This is kind of what we did back in the day so I feel like this is almost like a back in the day kind of thing, because not a lot of people get to talk anymore and things like that so it’ll be fun.”

Baldassaro said of the 102 rooms, 40 are still occupied. She said for the first time in her 34-year hotel career she had zero check-ins today. That means everyone inside is braving the storm for another night.

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