Iowa City residents emerged from snow-laden homes on Wednesday, many struggling to dig out cars and clear walkways after more than a foot of snow fell on Johnson County.

But some found ways to make the best of it.

Hills became sledding hot spots, the Pentacrest became grounds for a game of capture the flag, and others spent the day tramping through neighborhoods to rescue people from the snow.

“We just wanted to have fun — take advantage of the day off,” said University of Iowa sophomore Sam McCarthy.

She was involved in organizing the game of capture the flag on the Pentacrest lawn.

“It was epic,” she said.

But the two and a half-hour game was only one activity taking place on the Pentacrest.

UI freshman April Yuan playfully buried friend Bingquan Su, also a freshman, in the snow Wednesday afternoon. But despite the fun, traveling to campus had been difficult, she said.

“I drove here, and it was really slippery and hard,” she said.

Luckily for several Iowa City residents who were stuck in their homes, a group of UI students came to the rescue.

Starting at midnight, in the thick of the storm, UI senior JP Erickson and six of his friends shoveled snow from driveways and cars along a number of residential streets — estimating they uncovered around nine driveways and two to three dozen cars. Erickson and his friends are members of Campus Crusade for Christ, which he cited as an inspiration for the project.

“We just thought this would be a great thing to do,” he said.

He was standing outside a Church Street house whose walkway the group had just shoveled. Dressed in winter jackets and hats, they drank hot chocolate and ate cookies the home-owner provided.

“It’s a great way to show people that we just care about them,” he said.

Driving to campus was not the only difficulty for students during the snow day.

While Cambuses started running on a normal schedule Wednesday morning, the buses discontinued mid-morning because of incidents on the streets.

Cambus manager Brian McClatchey said two buses — one at Research Park and another at Mayflower —got stuck in the snow, forcing Cambuses to stop service until noon. When the vehicles ran again, service was limited to only a few routes, including Red, Blue, and Hawkeye-Interdorm routes, in addition to Pentacrest route.

McClatchey said Cambuses would get students to class on Thursday.

“[Thursday] we’ll be back to regular service without any modifications,” he said.