Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 18, 1993 TAG: 9303180361
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CHRIS STEUART STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
RESCUERS STUCK IN DRIFT NEEDED RESCUE THEMSELVES
Floyd County Rescue Squad members Robert Vest and Marlena Vest were two of the people who helped residents of the New River Valley during the Blizzard of 1993.But on Saturday night, after trudging onto Virginia 615 near the Blue Ridge Parkway to pick up an asthmatic patient, the cousins found themselves among the needy.
En route to Montgomery County Regional Hospital, the ambulance plowed through one snowdrift on Virginia 8, but got stuck in another huge drift between Riner and Christiansburg for nearly 14 hours.
Robert Vest, 45, said several cars were stuck in the second drift, making passage impossible.
"We called the Sheriff's Department, but we needed some heavy equipment out there," he said. "I guess we stayed there for about two hours before the patient began to seem like she was going to have another asthma attack."
The two rescue workers called the Christiansburg Volunteer Rescue Squad by radio and requested another ambulance to meet them on the other side of the drift.
When the Christiansburg ambulance arrived, the Vests hauled the asthma patient across the snowdrift.
"We had a real hard time carrying her," Robert Vest said. "We kept sinking in the snow. And the wind was blowing about 40 mph. You could hardly see. I guess the drift was about six-foot deep and 200 yards long."
Nearly a dozen motorists and their passengers, whose cars were stuck in the drift, crammed into the Christiansburg ambulance.
"It got crowded pretty quick," Robert Vest said. "So Marlena and myself elected to stay so all the other people could ride and stay warm."
They headed back to their ambulance, which was running and had nearly two full tanks of gas.
Robert Vest said officials with Christiansburg, Floyd, and Riner kept in touch with them. They had checked on a nearby house, but nobody answered their knocks on the door.
"When one of them called, it seemed like all of them would holler," Robert Vest said. "We're all just like one big family."
He said they "just laughed and watched it snow" from the ambulance, which was rocked by winds all night. But the engine never quit and they stayed warm.
"We sat there listening to the radio as everybody else got calls," Robert Vest said. "We were wishing we were out there helping people, but there wasn't anything we could do. We just kept in touch in case something happened near enough for us to walk to."
By 10 Sunday morning, a backhoe bulled its way through the snowdrift and cleared a path for the ambulance.