The Dreadful Storm of Jan. 26, 1971

The following story was written by Elva L. Lowry and was published in "Footprints in Time - Stories and Tales from Huron Township," the Ripley Agricultural Society's 150th anniversary booklet. It is reprinted here, with permission, marking the 55th anniversary of this fierce storm. Thanks to Anne Rock for providing this information for publication.

The storm started around 10 o'clock in the morning, Tuesday, Jan. 26. School buses were ordered home with the school children.

Bob took our car and sat at the gate 'till the bus came. Grace Marshall drove the bus and Roy walked ahead. We got Pauline and Karen here as Marilyn and Lois had gone to Kincardine and Ronnie was on the milk route.

Our telephone went out of order about 6 o'clock and our hydro went off around 8 that same night. Bob fed up at the barn with the flashlight, didn't milk that night!

Had no hydro or telephone still in the morning. I lit the stove and we had breakfast ... Pauline, Karen, Bob and I. Bob went to the barn. I didn't go out because there was a very high wind and the girls were here.

Ronnie had to leave his truck at Ernie Thompson's on 21 Highway and he walked to Ernie Walden's. Ernie walked home with him about 7 that night. We still didn't know where he was because we had no phone.

Ernie stayed all night at Ronnie's, and in the morning (Wednesday), Ernie went to the phone and he could hear Harlene Middelkamp say that John was missing since 10 o'clock last night (Tuesday), so Ronnie, he and Marilyn came as far as Harlene's on the ski-doos. Ronnie and Ernie went to the barn and found no trace of him so they came here thinking he might be here, but we had seen nothing of him. They decided to go to Ripley to get more help to go searching for John.

In the meantime, Marilyn and I had made arrangements to come to the phone every 15 minutes to find out if John had showed, and also if the men had gotten home from Ripley.

I had started to get dinner, soup and tea were on the stove when a knock came at the door. I expected to see Bob with the jar of milk I had told him to bring it in, when John was standing there ... bare hands and a broom in his hands. He made it inside the door and then fell on the floor.

Believe me, I didn't know where to start. I finally kept talking to him and got his cap, coat and his sweaters off, got his rubber boots off and they were just packed full of snow. I sat him on a chair with his back to the stove and got a woollen blanket and rolled him in it, then grabbed some tea and soup and just poured these into him. He was shaking so badly he could hardly talk and his hands were so swollen and sore he couldn't do a thing for himself.

Then I realized I was to talk to Marilyn on the phone so Marilyn was there on the phone when I got to it. I said John is here and I did need help because Bob was still at the barn and I couldn't leave to get him and it was not safe to send the girls out.

The ski-doors were just ready to leave the house to go on the search ... Jack Scott, Rev. George Ball, Ronnie and Ernie. So they all came over here. Jack Scott and Rev. Ball went on into Ripley. Bob and Ab Middelkamp, Ronnie and Ernie came here and Bob came in from the barn at about the same time. So he and I got the wet cold pants and underwear off John and put all dry clothes on him.

Ronnie and Ernie went on their machines to tell Henry and Alice Middelkamp that John was here. Then they went on to Kincardine on their machines to get salve and pills for him. They got back here about suppertime. We lit two coal-oil lamps for light and had to melt snow for drinking water, dishes and cooking.

We took the mattress off our bed and put it on the kitchen floor. Pauline and Karen slept on that. We had John rolled up on the couch and Harlene was rolled up in a woollen blanket in the big chair. Bob and I sat on chairs and kept the fire on.

That same night, Wednesday, Bert, Ernie, Ronnie, Earl and Don Rock went into Ripley and got Mabel and Leo Strauss and brought them home. They got me some groceries. They tried to get the furnace going to give us some heat but it wasn't very satisfactory. It didn't work very long.

On Wednesday, I served lunch around 2 o'clock. All of us were in the kitchen and had to melt snow for coffee and tea.

Got up Thursday morning and made breakfast ... oatmeal porridge, eggs ... no toast of course with no hydro ... John, Harlene, Ernie, Pauline, Karen, Bob and myself.

Then Ronnie and Albert Middelkamp left for Ripley to see about getting the plow to open the road to town to get John to the hospital because we knew we had to get him somewhere for medical care and Harlene was expecting her baby on Saturday. (The baby was born the following Wednesday.)

Ernie took Marj Middelkamp and their two boys and two girls over to Ronnie's because they had no heat either.

So we looked and hoped the snowplow would soon come. About 2 o'clock we heard it come over the radio (Don Rock had put it on) that the snowplow would be coming down the 10th to W.R. Lowry's to get John Middelkamp to the hospital. They asked that all ski-doos and everything keep off the roads.

I started to get some of Bob's clothes ready to put on John. So before very long Allan MacDonald was at the gate with Gordon Stewart's grader. We got John ready. Harlene got ready also, rolled towels around John's hands and Ronnie and Bob Middelkamp took them in our car and set out behind the plow.

They had a terrible trip to Kincardine. At times they never saw the plow right ahead of them. Ronnie couldn't roll down the window because he did not want the cold air hitting John. However sometimes they had to put their heads out the window to hear the plow ahead of them. Lots of times there was not even room between the car and the plow to even walk ahead.

However they got to the hospital and Allan MacDonald waited at Mel Riggin's Service Station until they were ready to come home again, but Ronnie had had enough driving in bad weather. He parked the car there and came home on the grader. Our car was there for a week!

Still no hydro or phone, and Bob milked the cows only once a day. Audrey was storm-stayed at Holyrood School with 137 students and five teachers and no hydro there either - only three blankets to use. She got home to Ripley Thursday night.

Friday at noon, Bill Elliott, Keith Carter and Rod MacDonald came to help Ernie and Ronnie and the hydro men along the way to hurry up the hydro. Keith brought Audrey out on Ted Rouse's cutter. I was sure glad to see her. She was loaded down with drinking water, salmon, soup and other groceries. Betty Elliott had sent down water and stuff too.

Sharon was storm-stayed at home and nearly crazy wondering about us because she couldn't talk to us on the phone.

Tom came over on the ski-doo that Friday night to see how we were doing and Sharon stayed at Vi's.

So finally about 6 o'clock on Friday, Jan. 29, we got hydro. What a wonderful feeling to get the house opened up again and the furnace full of heat, furniture moved back in place. We slept on our own bed Friday night, the first since Monday night. Pauline and Karen went home bag and baggage with their Dad that evening.

Tom, Ronnie, Don Rock and Ray Walden went down to see if they could get Ronnie's truck out but it was no use so they had to leave it. It was Sunday morning about 1 o'clock when they got it dug out. He got it to Rock's and left it there. He left from home on the ski-doo each day to go to the milk route. It was the middle of the week before he got it to his own place.

Bill and Keith fixed our telephone line on the Saturday so we had our telephone about 9 o'clock Saturday night.

Tuesday night John had left the house to check things in the barn and when he turned to tie the door he could see a glimpse of the house light. But he got turned around with the strong wind. He thought he was heading toward the house. He just missed the fences, colony house and the orchard. He wandered into this big field across from our house.

He wandered around trying to get his bearings of where he was until he got exhausted. He dug a hole in the snow and buried himself down in it and stuck the broom he had with him up so if anybody would be looking for him, the broom would attract their attention. He woke a few times but still could not see a thing. So at last he looked at his hands and realized he had better try to get somewhere. So not knowing which way to head he just started off.

He did get a brief glimpse of the evergreens on our lawn and he knew it was our place. He made for here. That was about 1:30 Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 27.

-- photo courtesy of The London Free Press