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Helicopter Rescues Heart Patient Stuck at Isolated Ranch (NM Blizzard)
The Albuquerque Journal ^ | January 1, 2007 | Jeff Jones

Posted on 01/01/2007 3:47:23 PM PST by CedarDave

A Black Hawk helicopter touched down in their pasture to ferry a heart patient to safety.

Thirty stranded travelers said goodbye after staying two nights.

Fourteen others settled in for their third straight overnight stay. And four more who had spent a chilly, frightening night in their snowbound car stopped in for some cocoa before hitting the road.

That was New Year's Eve at the Glover family's small ranch home between Clayton and Springer, which became the only port in the storm for dozens of northeastern New Mexico travelers caught in the Blizzard of 2006.

"It's pretty quiet," Christine Glover said in a telephone interview Sunday evening as 14 houseguests prepared to ring in 2007 in her 1,200-square-foot house.

Compared to the whole group of 44 that had spent Friday and Saturday nights there, "We can all kind of walk and have our own space," she said.

Randy and Christine Glover's Triple M Cattle Co. is just off U.S. 56, about 40 miles west of Clayton. That area of New Mexico saw up to 30 inches of snow— and drifts of 10 to 15 feet— from the storm that blasted much of New Mexico late last week.

The 44 motorists stranded on U.S. 56 made their way to the Glover home Friday after the Glovers heard some of them talking via two-way radio and realized they weren't far away in the white-out.

Christine Glover said after two snowbound days, the group woke up at daybreak Sunday to a sweet sight: Two plows blasting through the drifts on the highway, followed by a State Police officer.

Those three vehicles were followed by a car containing four people who had been stranded overnight in their vehicle on another nearby highway: They were discovered by one of the plow drivers.

(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: blizzard; goodneighbors; newmexico; nmblizzard
Companion story below.
1 posted on 01/01/2007 3:47:24 PM PST by CedarDave
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To: CedarDave

Having spent the last 40 years on the same intersection of a county road and a state highway, I've entertained my share of stranded travelers during snow storms. But NEVER 44 at one time.


2 posted on 01/01/2007 3:56:38 PM PST by Iowa Granny
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To: CedarDave

Original story:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1761056/posts


3 posted on 01/01/2007 4:06:02 PM PST by CedarDave
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To: CedarDave

I can't get my truck out of my driveway in Placitas.


4 posted on 01/01/2007 4:06:44 PM PST by Cogadh na Sith (There's an open road from the cradle to the tomb.)
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To: CedarDave
One of the 44 stranded motorists was a Louisiana man who received a heart transplant years ago and was running low on medication.

My doctor pal reading over my shoulder says:

"Running low on medication?! Do you know how many heart transplant patients across the country are happily eating holiday dinner and not taking their medication at all!"

I think that if NM didn't send a helicopter that AP and Reuters would have stories about cutting out hearts in human sacrifices in New Mexico because of the George Bush Blizzard....

5 posted on 01/01/2007 4:13:09 PM PST by Cogadh na Sith (There's an open road from the cradle to the tomb.)
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To: Iowa Granny
LOL, I remember a morning (many years ago when I was a child) when we had 2 strangers at our table for breakfast. It seems there was a dense fog and my father was coming home from work after a night shift in a town 50 miles from our house. He realized there were a couple of cars behind him that seemed to be following him. He'd turn, they'd turn. After a while, he turned for the final time and parked. The others stopped behind him. He went back and tapped on the windows and told the guys, "Well, we're home. Might as well come in and have some breakfast."

We lived in the middle of nowhere, but it was an interesting breakfast.

6 posted on 01/01/2007 4:46:40 PM PST by bluesagewoman
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To: bluesagewoman

It's stuff like that you remember for years.


7 posted on 01/01/2007 5:06:28 PM PST by Iowa Granny
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To: Iowa Granny

Yes, you are right. I was awakened early that day to run check and see if the hens had extra eggs. We actually had more than we needed (unusually so) that morning, and the pancakes and maple syrup seemed extra special that day. It is amazing how friends are made. Hospitality is an art.


8 posted on 01/01/2007 5:13:17 PM PST by bluesagewoman
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