Couple ends up with 44 house guests in storm (NM Blizzard)

Christine and Randy Glover had a full house — 44 sudden guests stranded by a blizzard along a rural highway in northeastern New Mexico....

Motorists from Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas descended on the Glovers' three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot home after their vehicles became stuck in 3- to 4-foot deep snowdrifts on U.S. 56 highway between Springer and Clayton.

The stranded motorists spent Friday and Saturday at the home. Most left Sunday as the highway was cleared...

She and her husband realized motorists were trapped only 150 yards from their home in a whiteout Friday afternoon when [their] two-way radios picked up transmissions from a couple of the motorists.

Christine Glover had no idea how many people she was inviting. The Glovers live about 40 miles west of Clayton, a tiny community in far northeastern New Mexico near the Texas and Oklahoma state lines.

Their unexpected house guests ranged from a 4-year-old boy to a woman in her 70s, Christine Glover said. One man, from Louisiana, was a heart transplant patient and was airlifted by helicopter to Santa Fe on Sunday afternoon, she said.

Another stranded motorist was the driver of a food truck, and they raided his cargo. ''God works in mysterious ways. ... The guy that drove the truck is a great guy,'' Christine Glover said. The driver let his company know what was happening, and it was declared an emergency situation, she said. ...

''It was our lifeline, was that truck,'' she said. It carried all kinds of nonperishable food. ''We had cereal, ate a lot of Pop Tarts, chips, a lot of canned soup,'' she said. ''We were able to feed everybody. Nobody went hungry.''

"People helping people in need. A good way to end a troubled year".

Not unusual at all for Americans. The most underrated good samaritans on the earth.

We are at our best when challenged - at our worst when we are fat & happy - we have that JudeoChristian guilt for good fortune.

That is our blessing and our curse.

A FReeper recently posted that because we have not been "inconvenienced" by the War in Iraq, we cannot take pride in sacrifice - except for those in the military and their families.

Although it is quickly fading as the State grows, one of the things I have always liked about New Mexico is the fact that people still help people stranded on the highways. This Journal story reminded me of the early days in America when people in the frontier areas were expected to provide a bed for weary travelers.

I was stranded for about five hours on I-40 east of Moriarty in that first snow storm this year and one trucker risked the slippery highway to pass out food and cokes to the people stranded along with him.

I just had to post this here:

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the central part of Colorado after todays (last week's) snowstorm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:
George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV .
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm.

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.

Nobody - I mean Nobody - demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and
No Geraldo Rivera.

No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."

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