Snowstorm strands 200 Minnesota teens on Pennsylvania highway

(KMSP) - The massive snowstorm wreaking havoc on the east coast has left a busload of more than 100 teenagers from Minnesota stranded on a Pennsylvania highway in the Appalachian Mountains. 

The teenagers are from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and were participating in an anti-abortion rally in Washington, D.C. Friday. Their buses, along with hundreds of other vehicles, has been stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike since 8 p.m. Friday night. 

Bill Dill, the organizer of the trip and a coordinator with the Archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life, tells Fox 9 the teenagers have a good attitude about their situation. On Saturday morning, they built an altar out of snow and organized a mass for 200 to 300 people from nearby buses. 

Dill says they did not realize how much snow was expected to fall when the group left the Twin Cities for Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. 

Emergency crews have been working to get the cars out one by one. Dill says he is unsure when their buses will be able to get moving again or when they will make it back to Minnesota. 

He and several of the other leaders walked to the nearest town to bring back gallons of water for the kids. Emergency crews have also been bringing supplies to the stranded motorists. 

In the meantime, the teenagers have been making the most of their unusual circumstances by playing and sledding in the piles of snow building up outside their bus.