As many Washington-area commuters are undoubtedly aware, rush hour was the worst possible time for a snowstorm Wednesday evening, with drivers suffering through ungodly commutes and vehicles left abandoned all over the region, conjuring images of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Karen White, from Calvert County, left work at 4 p.m. – and ended up having to stay in a hotel at National Harbor after her adventure.

White actually offered to share the room with a woman in line with her, also named Karen, but said she never heard back from her.

“I think you have to have patience,” she said. “Will I drive home again when it snows? No.”

Rhonda Farmer, who lives in Waldorf, Md., left her D.C. office to catch a bus at about 4:30, and didn’t get home until nearly 10 p.m.

“There were cars that had spun out of control, were stranded, a lot of [people] had gotten out of their cars,” she said, saying that some cars even resorted to coming back in the wrong direction on arteries around National Harbor as a last resort.

One advertising executive working in Springfield had about a nine-hour commute, leaving work at 5:30, getting stuck on the Wilson Bridge for  about seven hours, and finally arriving at her Clarksville home at 2:20 a.m.