Bus walked through Icelandic whiteout

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A group of Icelandic aluminum smelter employees got to work in a whiteout blizzard after two men walked ahead of their bus to guide the driver, a worker said.

The bus takes workers from the towns of Neskaupstadur and Eskifjordur on Iceland's east coast to the smelter in Reydarfjordur, Iceland Review said.

The 45-minute trip took 3 hours Thursday, the Reykjavik newspaper Morgunbladid reported. The 5-mile stretch between Eskifjordur and the plant, usually a matter of 5 or 10 minutes, took 2 hours.

Sigurdur Sveinsson said the weather was good when the bus left Neskaupstadur. But the bus hit a storm so thick on the approach to Eskifjordur the driver had to pull over.

"It was so stormy and there was so much snowblindness that we couldn't see a thing in front of us anymore," he said.

Sveinsson said he and the driver walked 5 feet in front of the bus while another worker took the wheel and two more acted as lookouts.

The dayshift at the Alcoa-Fjardaral plant ended up spending the night there because all roads out of Reydarfjordur were blocked by snow.