They Traveled From South Korea. They Got Stranded Near Buffalo. - The New York Times

Alexander Campagna and his wife, Andrea, lifelong residents of Buffalo, were acceptable to hold the blizzard out. They had stocked the fridge and planned for a quiescent vacation play indoors astatine their location successful suburban Williamsville, N.Y., arsenic agelong arsenic the powerfulness stayed on.

Then, connected Friday astatine 2 p.m., with the tempest already swirling and snowfall rapidly piling up, making roads impassable, determination was a sound astatine the door. Two men, portion of a radical of 9 tourists from South Korea that was traveling to Niagara Falls, asked for shovels to excavation their rider van retired of a ditch.

And truthful an improbable vacation play began, with the Campagnas welcoming the travelers, on with their driver, arsenic location guests. They became “accidental innkeepers,” said Mr. Campagna, a 40-year-old dentist.

Before leaving connected Friday greeting from Washington, D.C., the circuit participants, astir of them from Seoul, seemed unaware of the worrisome forecast, said Yoseb Choi, 27, who is from Pyeongtaek. He was traveling with his wife, Claire, connected the tour, which they had booked for their honeymoon.

A time earlier, helium had grown acrophobic aft receiving messages from friends alerting him to the coming storm. On Friday, the van thrust was slippery and windy, and the passengers had go anxious, helium said.

Then, aft hours of watching the upwind deteriorate extracurricular the van’s windows, they ended up stranded adjacent the Campagna house, Mr. Choi said.

The Campagnas, good alert of the dangers the tempest presented, instantly invited the travelers in, “knowing, arsenic a Buffalonian, this is connected different level, the Darth Vader of storms,” Mr. Campagna said.

The visitors — 7 women and 3 men — filled the three-bedroom house, sleeping connected couches, sleeping bags, an aerial mattress and successful the home’s impermanent bedroom. The different travelers included parents with their daughter, an Indiana assemblage student, and 2 college-age friends from Seoul. Three of them spoke English proficiently.

They spent the play swapping stories, watching the Buffalo Bills defeat the Chicago Bears connected Christmas Eve and sharing delicious Korean home-cooked meals prepared by the guests, similar jeyuk bokkeum, a spicy stir-fried pork dish, and dakdori tang, a chickenhearted stew laced with fiery reddish pepper. To the astonishment and glee of the Korean guests, Mr. Campagna and his wife, who are some fans of Korean food, had each the indispensable condiments connected hand: mirin, soy sauce, Korean reddish capsicum paste, sesame lipid and chili flakes. There was besides kimchi and a atom cooker.

“It was benignant of similar fate,” Mr. Choi said, remarking connected the luck of arriving astatine the Campagnas’ doorstep with their afloat stocked room and unhesitating hospitality. He said the hosts were “the kindest radical I person ever met.”

One of the guests, the parent of the Indiana assemblage student, was a fabulous cook, helium said.

“We destroyed truthful overmuch food,” helium added.

Mr. Campagna said that the unexpected guests had been a delight.

“We person enjoyed this truthful much,” helium said, calling it a “unique blessing,” and adding that the acquisition has inspired the mates to program a sojourn to South Korea. “We volition ne'er hide this.”

Mr. Choi said helium had spent immoderate of his precocious schoolhouse years learning English successful Michigan and Kansas, but his woman had ne'er been to the United States, truthful the circuit was a accidental to question to respective cities she was anxious to see. The program had been to sojourn New York City, Washington, Niagara Falls and Montreal.

After landing successful New York City connected Dec. 21 for the tour, which was operated by a South Korean institution called Yellow Balloon, they visited the Empire State Building and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, browsed the Museum of Modern Art and checked retired the Oculus astatine the World Trade Center, each successful 1 day. In Washington, they visited the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and 1 of the Smithsonian museums.

“We were tired, but it was exciting,” Mr. Choi said. Even the unexpected snowfall catastrophe contributed to the experience, helium said, allowing the mates to acquisition a “warm invited from existent Americans.”

On Sunday, the snowfall was winding down and the roadworthy was plowed, but the van remained stuck. Drivers arrived to prime up the tourists, who were returning to New York City, wherever astir of them volition alert backmost to South Korea successful the mediate of the week. Mr. Choi said helium and his woman volition enactment a spot longer to observe New Year’s Day successful Times Square.

Had they been stranded for different night, they had been reasoning bulgogi — Korean grilled beef — for Christmas dinner.

Jack Begg contributed research.