Blizzards can be dangerous situations. Despite the risks, an 80-year-old man didn’t let a blizzard stop him from helping stranded motorists. And most impressively, he did it all on foot!

In Pense, a town located in Saskatchewan, Canada, weather warnings were issued for an impending blizzard that was expected to hit around 7 pm in the evening. For one local woman, Shannon St. Onge, she figured she had enough time to run a few important errands before the storm hit.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

As she wrote in a post on Facebook, “I grabbed take out for the kids, filled my gas tank, replaced my broken phone charger and then hit the dirt roads around 5:30 to head home before the storm hit.”

She chose to drive a dirt road, thinking that it would be a better drive given the winter driving conditions. But when she turned off the pavement and onto the gravel road, the winter winds started to really pick up and her visibility was greatly impaired. The winds had caused snow from the nearby open fields to flurry across the road, making it a hazardous situation.

She recalled in the post, “I found myself driving with my head out of the drivers window, watching the edge of the gravel as my guide, while I crawled forward at 15km/hr, not actually looking forward at the road ahead. I did this for about 10km, until I could no longer see and I had to stop, right where I was. 12km from home. I tried to walk across the road to gauge where I was oriented but the +100km/hr gusts pushed me backward and I just got back into the car. Soaking wet, and full of sand from the gusting wind, that was whipping gravel and sand all over the place.”

https://www.facebook.com/751155385/videos/pcb.10165781990795386/648669016278470

That is when she decided to pull over and call the authorities. The 911 operator she was speaking to, suggested that she just stay in her car and wait out the storm. But Shannon was understandably apprehensive, given that storm conditions were expected to last until the following morning.

She worried about the gas tank staying full until the morning if she had the car running overnight. She worried about potentially getting hit by another car. There were so many fears racing through her mind that she decided to try another option: social media. In a desperate bid for help, Shannon posted her location to the Pense community Facebook page, hoping someone nearby might be able to help her out.

Photo: Shannon St Onge

And that is when 80-year-old Andre Bouvier Sr. was called regarding Shannon’s ordeal. His farm was right by her location. Andre went out to start his tractor, only the vehicle refused to start. Rather than shrug it off as an impossible task, Andre decided to set off on foot into the storm to find Shannon. But along the way, he also came across two other cars with stranded motorists like Shannon.

Eventually, Andre ended up returning to his house with a total a seven people – welcoming them all into his house. Andre’s wife was there to welcome them with a much-needed hot coffee and some homemade applesauce.

Shannon said in her post, “This family took seven of us stranded passengers in off the road, fed us, laughed with us, bonded with us, gave us blankets, pillows and a warm place to rest our eyes for a few hours. When we all woke up at 5am, he had already ploughed the driveway for us, and at around 5:30, we made a little convoy and headed to town. Visibility was better, but still very, very poor.”

Photo: flickr/Liz West

In the end, Shannon was able to make it back home, safe and sound. And as the mother recalled, she has “never hugged my kids tighter.”

The 80-year-old Andre is nothing short of a hero, but he doesn’t see himself as such. In fact, he doesn’t want to take credit for his actions, saying, “Everybody would have done the same thing. You don’t think about it, you just do it.”

Watch the video below:

https://www.facebook.com/751155385/videos/1097561164372263/

What do you think of this man’s actions? Let us know!