Tia Thue was travelling to her home in the Radville area when the blizzard hit last Monday.  

Her car ended up in the ditch, and she became panicked as she did not have her cellphone with her, and she was not dressed appropriately for the blizzard.  

“I think that in this day and age we are so reliant on communication,” She said. “So I think the biggest thing that has really been on my mind is that was I even thinking clearly, just because I didn't have my phone, and so once I hit the ditch, I didn't feel safe to stay in my vehicle.” 

Thue walked for around an hour trying to find her home.

“I just kind of kept thinking I know where my house is, I need to get home. My kids were at home and my husband should have been behind me, we were both in town and so I was waiting for him for a little while in the vehicle and then he wasn't coming. The only thing that I even looked at before I got out of my vehicle was the time, I didn't look at the temperature, I didn't really look at anything else.” 

Finally help had arrived, as Thue heard a car horn.   

“I turned around to face the direction of my house and then I didn't know if it was a vehicle or if it was actually my house lights and so then when the vehicle got to me, I was just trying to get in, but I actually couldn't get up into the vehicle by myself. It was my husband and he put me in, and at the time I wasn't sure that it was him, but I knew it was a vehicle.” 

She said that after this experience, she might forever have questions that she doesn’t have an answer for.  

“Even just the fact that my husband did come out. He said ‘I hoped that you would have been in the vehicle when I got to you but,' he said ‘I figured you would have gotten out and tried to walk.’ Honestly the most humbling thing is if he had not known me so well, or if he would have hit the ditch, there are so many what ifs, that this could have ended so much differently.” 

On Saturday Thue returned to the part of the highway she was stranded on.

"That was probably the most beneficial thing for me to do just in this process of accepting what has happened and trying to move on from it."

Submitted PhotoPhoto submitted by Tia Thue of the part of the highway she was stranded on

After going through this experience, Thue wants to make sure that people know what to do in these situations. She is warning people not to leave their car when caught in a storm like this. 

“It’s not guaranteed that you would make it home walking in that, or that you would be found.”  

Thue added that you should be prepared for the winter at all times, with a full tank of gas, and an emergency bag filled with clothes, toques and mitts for the whole family, a phone charger, tea lights, matches, a flashlight, and blankets.  

She also said that it’s a good idea to pay attention to the little details out in the country when you’re living out of town and drive on a certain road regularly.