A blizzard coming in

Blizzard coming in

I was sitting in dispatch in Warm Springs on swing shift when my relief came running in the door and said “get out of here now before you can’t get home, there is a blizzard on the plains and visibility is almost down to nothing, getting worse by the minute”

I did not ask any questions but took off for home. I drove at that time a GMC Jimmy that did fantastic in the snow. It is about 5 miles to the top of the grade to the plains, I went up the grade with no problem thinking where is the snow?

I topped over the top and instant blizzard. You could not see 20 feet and the snow was coming down sideways. I made it the four miles to home. As I was sitting in the house watching the snow come down or I should say the snow go sideways and pile up in drifts I got to worrying about my husband. There is no way he is going to make it the 10 miles from Madras to home in this blizzard with no four wheel drive. I figured I could get to town and get him by the time he got off.

I fired the Jimmy up again and headed to town. It only took me about 1 mile to wonder if this was a good idea, maybe he should just get a motel room in town but it was snowing so hard I was afraid to turn around.

Below the hood of the Jimmy you could not even see the road. I could see the neighbor’s yard lights as a faint glow in the snow and I started counting residences as I was afraid I would miss the 90 degree corner I knew was coming. A few of the drifts were so tall already I had to back up and make two tries to knock the snow down enough to get through.

I made the first 90 degree corner to the left and I knew I had another to the right in about ½ mile. I watched the speedometer to try and help gauge where I was going to have to turn. As I got to the turn I noticed some head lights coming towards me and stop and just set there. I wondered if the vehicle was stuck. I was only moving about 5 mph where I could see.

I turned to the right; I could not tell what kind of vehicle was at the intersection, just the glow of their lights. I continued towards town watching as the vehicle pulled out behind me. I could tell he was having problems by watching his lights swing back and forth like he was turning sideways.  He finally got into the rut I was leaving and pulled right up to my bumper. Talk about a tailgater, he was really close.

We continued this way; I felt like I had a vehicle chained to my bumper he was so close. I hit a large drift and had to back up and try again. The car behind me had stopped where I could back up. I backed up about 4 times to knock it down where he could get through.

We continued this way me breaking drifts down and him waiting until I was done and then off again we would go.  Sometimes the drifts were almost level with my hood. I thanked God for 4X4 and for winter tires.

We got to the top of the hill going down to Madras and boom, the snow was all gone again. It was so weird, only on the plains was it bad. I continued to the Sheriff’s office to get my husband.  He was surprised to see me and I told him that I had come to get him because he could not get home without 4x4. He looked out the window and back at me like I was crazy because there was no snow in town, I mean not a flake.  Just about that time two of the deputies that were standing in the door said “Sgt. You had better listen to her, if we had not realized that was your Jimmy going by in our headlights we would still be sitting at an intersection wondering where we were. We had the patrol car chained up and still could not get around and we could not see. We figured we would end up at your house following you but instead she came to town”

My husband got in the Jimmy and we headed home.  We got to the top of the hill and all he could do was watch in amazement at the change. Just a few hundred feet made all the difference. My tracks to town were already gone but you could see where I had broke through the drifts.

I was so glad to see my warm home, none to soon either as we had 6 foot drifts by morning and by that afternoon most of it was gone. Just a freak storm in the middle of the night.