Niagara women’s basketball team: Toughing out storm

I was feeling pretty fed up with my cable television provider because I haven't been able to get certain channels since Sunday night and they aren't sending a technician to my house until Friday morning.

I'm still not happy with the cable provider (and I'm just too darn nice to name it), but I found a little perspective Tuesday night. I read about Niagara University's women's basketball team being stuck in a bus on the New York State Thruway (I-90) because of the blizzard that left three to four feet in western New York.

Monday night, Niagara played at the University of Pittsburgh. The Purple Eagles lost the game, then got on the bus for home in Lewiston, N.Y. But the snow fell like mad, and the Thruway was closed. The bus was stuck at 2 a.m., Tuesday. Finally Wednesday morning, 30 hours later, travel could resume.

I did some snooping around Twitter Tuesday night and saw tweets from Niagara assistant coach Corinne Jones. I tweeted her and said I'd bet no coaching seminar ever prepared her for an experience like this.

From the bus, she sent me back a tweet 10 minutes or so later that said 'we don't learn how to physically weather a storm ... but we do know how to role model being consistent leaders! We're mentally tough!'

The team had a little food on the bus, but ran out of drinks and had to collect snow to melt for drinking water. Late Tuesday night, some Niagara Falls first responders and volunteers brought the 24 people on the bus some food and drinks. The bus had heat and electricity, so this wasn't a life-threatening situation, but it wasn't something you'd want really ever want to experience.

Head coach Kendra Faustin estimated there were 100 cars trapped on the highway behind the bus. The state police told her they were pulling unconscious people out of their cars. Four deaths had been blamed on the storm as of late last night.

'We are so blessed to be warm and together,' Faustin said. One of the people with her was her 1-year-old daughter.

Yeah, I think I'll be OK waiting until Friday for the cable guy.