He rocked the truck back and forth to try to free it, but it only sank down deeper into the snow and shredded one of his tires. He called 911. A police officer came by at 9:30 a.m. and said he would send a tow truck.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, Jingo was still waiting.
‘‘I would have been fine if I didn’t have to swerve,’’ he said.
In Middle Island, a Wal-Mart remained unofficially open long past midnight to accommodate more than two dozen motorists who were stranded on nearby roads.
‘‘We’re here to mind the store, but we can’t let people freeze out there,’’ manager Jerry Greek told Newsday.
Officials weren’t aware of any deaths among the stranded drivers, Cuomo said. Suffolk County police said no serious injuries had been reported among stuck motorists, but officers were still systematically checking stranded vehicles late Saturday afternoon.
While the expressway eventually opened Saturday, about 30 miles of the highway was to be closed again Sunday for snow removal.
Susan Cassara left her job at a Middle Island day care center around 6:30 p.m., after driving some of the children home because their parents couldn’t get there to pick them up.
She got stuck on one road until about 2:30 a.m. Then a plow helped her get out — but she got stuck again, she said. Finally, an Army National Guardsman got to her on a snowmobile after 4 a.m.
‘‘It was so cool. Strapped on, held on and came all the way here’’ to the makeshift shelter at the Brookhaven Town Hall, she said. ‘‘Something for my bucket list.’’
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Associated Press writers Mary Esch in Albany, N.Y.; Michael Melia in Hartford, Conn.; Jennifer Peltz and AP radio correspondent Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.
