A retiree rescuer hiked half a kilometer through a winter whiteout to reach a woman that had used social media to alert the local neighborhood that she was stuck and afraid for her safety.
At 80-years old, Andre Bouvier Sr. is being hailed as a hero for rescuing not only the woman, but three other cars likewise stuck in an impassable blizzard which locals describe as a “Saskatchewan Screamer.”
Many have had the same thought as Shannon St. Onge when looking at the approach of snow on a weather forecast—that they have time to finish their errands. The director of finance at the First Nations University of Canada, her signature on a check required her to drive her usual commute of 25 kilometers (15 miles) from her home in Pense, over to the city of Regina.
As she was leaving, the winter snow began to fall, and taking a dirt road for better traction on her tires, she quickly became lost, with no ability to see more than a sliver of the road’s edge from a rolled-down window. After a while she stopped and called 911, with the operator suggesting she wait out the storm as her tank was full and she was warm.
“She (the operator) took my information and told me an officer would call me back. Almost 14 hours and counting and nobody has called me yet to check in,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
“Would the gas tank last until morning? What if I was hit by another vehicle? What if I fell asleep and the tailpipe was blocked? What if I didn’t make it home at all?” St. Onge wondered.
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Determined to ensure the safest end to her turn for the worse, she went out in the storm and discovered her location on a road sign, then found a neighborhood Facebook group for the area she was passing through—alerting those it contained of her plight through a Google Maps pin.
That’s when Andre Bouvier Sr., doing some at-home genealogy research, got a call about St. Onge’s situation, and bundling up while ignoring his wife’s concern for his safety, the 80-year-old went out to find her, on foot, since he couldn’t manage to start his tractor.
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On the way he found three other stranded vehicles, totaling seven people, and walking the quarter mile there and back, he led the helpless cars one by one to his home.
“Once we arrived to [his] house, and I parked the car, I got out and jumped into his arms and gave him a great big bear hug,” St. Onge told CBC News. “I was sobbing with gratitude, I was so grateful.”
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Bouvier let the survivors sleep at his house, where they ate and laughed, and departed the next morning after he had plowed the driveway.
Bouvier remarked that everyone would have done the same, and that it took very few thoughts or courage to help.
(WATCH the CBC video for this story below.)
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Way to go companion of others.