The Children's Blizzard

By dawn on Friday, January 13, the storm had mostly “blown itself out”(203). The cities of the Great Plain states were paralyzed, every building closed, the railways deserted. Farmers discovered that the cattle they couldn’t save were frozen solid, often suffocated by thick ice that had formed around their heads. One farmer found that his herd of frozen animals extended for over 10 miles.

Humans trapped in the snow fared better than the animals, most surviving being buried in the snow. However, some survivors, after digging themselves out and starting to make their way to a farmhouse for help, dropped down dead. They suffered cardiac arrest from the cold blood leaving their extremities and entering their hearts, shocking the cardiovascular system into dysfunction. Referred to as “death by rescue” (208), modern medical science dictates keeping survivors of hypothermia at rest even if they feel fine. In this blizzard, survivors noted that more stranded women and children survived than men. Men stuck in the blizzard, after digging themselves out, would bid women and children to stay put while they went for help, unknowingly dooming themselves to death by fibrillation.

Lena Woebbecke woke up on Friday to find herself frozen to the ground with no feeling in her legs.