Pittsburgh Man Needs Help After Storm Leaves Him Stuck In Salem

SALEM, MA -- Last week Salem Patch asked readers to send us their best photos of the storm that left streets flooded, roads closed and a foot-deep blanket of snow on the city. One of the most dramatic pictures was of a Jeep encased in ice, snow and seawater on Bridge Street. Turns out, the owner of that Jeep was also a Salem Patch reader.

"On my way home from work, I got stuck in the storm surge after being re-directed by officials to go down Bridge Street rather than my typical route home," Terry Quarles said. "All of a sudden, a 4-foot wave of seawater came crashing down on my car and flooded it. I was able to get out of the car and get to safety, but sadly my car was submerged in water."

From there, things only got worse for Quarles and his Jeep. The Jeep floated into a drainage ditch and froze overnight in several feet of seawater. He called a few tow truck drivers but they all refused because of the ice encasing the vehicle.

"A couple days later, after trying to chisel the car out myself, I was able to flag down a backhoe going down Bridge Street to help pull my car out of the frozen seawater," Quarles said. "The backhoe driver said he had never seen anything like it in the 16 years he lived in New England. The next day, my car was towed to a garage and allowed to thaw out."

The car may have thawed out, but it's a total loss after being in frozen seawater for two full days. Quarles lives in Pittsburgh but was in Salem on a contract job -- a job he lost because he no longer has a reliable vehicle. That has left him stuck in Salem with no job and no way of getting back to Pittsburgh.

Quarles has set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise the $4,500 he needs to salvage the vehicle and get home.

"With no job, I am short on cash to buy a new car so all donations will help," he said. "But at least my car got famous by making it on the Salem Patch."

More on this story:

• Salem Storm Of 2018: Reader Photos (1/5/2018)
• Salem's Coastal Flooding Is Worst In 50 Years: City Historian (1/4/2018)

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Photo of Bridge Street flooding by Daniel Fury of Salem.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).