During an unwelcome snow storm, a family in Southern California received a welcome package.
With a blizzard in the background, a Lake Arrowhead couple reportedly experienced some terrifying moments as they struggled to get to a hospital for the birth of their second child – a girl whose name, appropriately, is Winter.
When Brady Wade, who lives in the unincorporated community in the San Bernardino Mountains, came home from work on Feb. 23, while driving on roads with 3 to 4 feet of snow, his wife, Crystal, told him she was having contractions. He immediately began loading their truck with supplies to take to the hospital, 50 miles away in Fontana. But because the terrible weather had blocked the roads, the truck was not parked close to the house. Wade’s trips to the car cost them time.
Wade recounted the ordeal in a interview with OnScene TV.
When a friend learned of Wade’s panic, he raced through the snow to his home, helped him load and promised to look after the couple’s 4-year-old son as they embarked on the harrowing trek through the mountains.
“The road conditions were really tough,” recalled Wade, trying to maneuver through crosswinds surrounded by icy powder.
He plowed on, while the contractions got “closer and closer”.
The pair eventually stopped at their destination, where the doctor told Wade that if they had been just a few minutes later, the baby would have been born along the snowy route.
Wade, who has lived in Lake Arrowhead for five years, said he had “never seen anything like it. I have neighbors who have lived here for 30 years. They said they haven’t seen anything like it since, I think it was the storms of ’76, ’79. This is biblical. Seriously, it’s unmanageable at the moment. We are lucky to be safe.”
Yet they faced more hurdles before their ordeal was over.
In a interview with NBCWade said when they went home from the hospital the next day, they found the storm had forced authorities to close major roads. Coincidentally, he obtained a residence permit to go up the mountain, only to find that the streets leading to his home had not been cleared for at least six blocks.
After picking up their son from their friends’ house, the Wades had to be practical. They wrapped Winter under Crystal’s coat, and with Brady holding his son, they trekked through the snow to return home.