SNOW caused massive disruption last week, with blocked roads, power cuts and reports of people taking hours to battle their way home last Friday.

Vehicles stuck on the A31 and M3 led to long delays, tractors were called in to help an ambulance in Four Marks and roadsides were lined with stranded cars.

It seemed everyone had a story and an Alton Herald receptionist was among those whose night featured significantly more drama than she would have liked.

Having returned home early to avoid the weather, she and her husband received a call from their daughter who, like thousands of fellow motorists, was stuck on the M3. So they advised her to park at the Mill House in North Warnborough and wait for them to pick her up in their 4x4.

“We set off to collect her at about 4pm and this is when our ‘snow adventure’, or nightmare, begins,” she explained.

Although the road was “getting worse”, they eventually made it to the Mill House at 6.30pm having used lanes she “didn’t know existed”.

“One very relieved daughter greeted us,” she added. “The Mill House staff said it was fine to leave my daughter’s car there.”

Knowing the M3 was at a standstill, the three of them tried a number of ways to get home to Alresford.

“We eventually passed the Holiday Inn at the Venture Roundabout, Basingstoke at about 9pm,” she said. “My daughter went in to see if there were any rooms, but the inn was full.”

By now the conditions were “horrendous” and their subsequent attempts to get home resulted in failure. So they “gingerly” made their way back to the fully-booked Holiday Inn.

“We were greeted by many motorists in a similar situation,” she said. “This was 10pm. We knew there were no rooms but the hotel staff allowed us and many more motorists to sleep in the reception and bar area.”

They ordered pizza, chips and drinks before the kitchen closed at 11pm. But then, all camped together with “sheets and pillows”, traumatised by an evening that surely couldn’t get any worse, the power went out.

Plunged into darkness, the “brilliant” staff organised sandwiches instead. They then “settled down for the night” in armchairs and on the floor.

The power came back on at 4.30am, and they made it home at 6.40am.

And, after all that, they were due to go to Wembley on Saturday night... to see Snow Patrol!

For a round-up of your snow pictures, see this week’s Herald.