Stranded by the massive winter storm that battered the East Coast this week, a New York mother of five paid $900 for a cab to drive her family home through heavy snow and high winds, ABC News reported Wednesday.
Emilian Emeagwali’s family had enjoyed a week-long vacation at Disney World when they learned their flight to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was canceled because of the storm, she told ABC.
Rather than wait out the backlog of canceled flights, Emeagwali decided to book another flight to Buffalo, N.Y., the report said.
Upon arriving in Buffalo, the family took a cab to the local Greyhound Bus station where they learned no buses were running.
After asking the cab driver, Eddy Emran, to take them to a hotel, he offered to drive them home for the price of $1,100, The New York Times reported.
Emeagwali negotiated the price down to $900 and the group set off on a 13-hour slog toward their home in Elmwood, N.Y., a suburb of New York City.
The ride from upstate New York was fraught with heavy snows and low visibility, Emeagwali told ABC. To pass the time, the group opted not to listen to news reports about the storm but instead talked about their families, the report said.
After leaving Disney World at 9:00am ET Sunday, the family arrived home at 10:00am ET Monday.
Grateful to Erman for getting her family home safely, Emeagwali gifted the driver a bottle of wine and told him he was welcome in her home anytime.