Seven people were hospitalized after participants of the late-night Trump rally at the airport in Omaha, Nebraska, were trapped in the freezing cold.
According to reporters on the ground, a substantial number of the audience, estimated to be in the thousands, stayed on the site waiting on the bus hours after Trump’s plane had left. Outside temperatures were at the freezing mark.
The issue was blamed on the restricted traffic volume on the two-lane road heading to the rally venue.
The Washington Post reported that Trump supporters were stuck after the president spoke at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield. It said many elderly supporters of Trump were among those stranded.
Omaha police said in a written statement that first responders dealt with 30 people for medical reasons throughout the day and seven were sent to hospital.
Police-monitoring platforms on social media confirmed that several people had detrimental effects from temperatures about 30F (-1C) while they waited for shuttle busses or attempted to walk to their cars more than two miles away after the rally.
“Many people underestimated the distance from the event back to the parking lot on foot,” said Officer Michael Pecha, Omaha Police Spokesperson.
Police said that 40 busses were used to shuttle 25,000 participants to the protest site over a 10-hour span, beginning at 10 a.m., but an unknown amount stayed until the rally concluded, the police said.
Traffic was snarled, and waiting busses that could accommodate around 50 passengers each were overwhelmed as the people left the event about 9 pm, the police said. Additional busses were called up to attempt to move people to their vehicles.
