HEFLIN, Ala. (AP) A layer of ice coated roads leading up Mount Cheaha from Christmas Day until late Wednesday, leaving at least 20 abandoned cars stranded on the way up to Alabama’s highest point for days.

Hartley Frederick, the superintendent at Cheaha State Park, said that while icy road conditions disappeared in most areas soon after the weekend snowfall, roads remained treacherous for days on Mount Cheaha, located in east Alabama with an elevation of 2,407 feet above sea level.

“The ice layer itself was right atop the (roadside) reflectors,” said Frederick. “It’s kinda hard to believe, isn’t it?”

In one S-curve on Alabama 281, at least 20 cars slid off the road. Frederick said three or four were piled up against one other on the roadside, each making it a bit further than the other before sliding into a ditch.

Frederick rescued four stranded families, including a couple with two toddlers, from the curve over the last three days, ferrying them to the mountaintop hotel.

An emergency crew is on hand during every snow storm to aid campers and hikers, and this time was no different, said Tammy Power, Cheaha Lodge manager.

“You can’t let them be there without food, you’ve got little bitty kids, you can’t let them starve,” said Power, who didn’t get off the mountain until Tuesday.

The Alabama Department of Transportation didn’t close roads on the mountain, and Kerry Cole, an assistant to the division maintenance engineer, said he had no information about the spate of accidents as of late Wednesday afternoon.

Frederick set up roadblocks to keep drivers out of the worst areas, but the barricades were pushed into ditches.

“People (are) still gonna come,” Frederick said. “When it snows everybody thinks of Cheaha and they wanna see the snow, and that’s fine.”