The Wade family is celebrating the birth of their second child, which took place while trapped in the snow-covered streets of the San Bernardino Mountains.
The historic winter storm and rare blizzard warning brought challenges for thousands of people in Southern California, but for the Wades, it was truly an epic moment.
The Wade family never imagined that the birth of their daughter would become an odyssey due to the amount of snow that fell in Lake Arrowhead, where Brady Wade lives with his wife and his four-year-old son.
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The day began as a regular one for Brady, a state worker. “I was at work Thursday, and we were shoveling snow, so we could house emergency workers, and I got home around 9:30 p.m.”
Brady narrates that his wife was pregnant and “at that time, we were in the middle of the storm. There was about 3 or 4 feet of snow on the ground."
He arrived home and "my wife says that she is having contractions, so I began to load the car, unfortunately I could not take the car to my house due to the conditions of the roads."
Brady was desperately trying to load the car, which was a bit far from the house. Meanwhile, his wife was "getting closer contractions.”
Brady says he wondered how they were going to get to the hospital, since they live in Lake Arrowhead, and the hospital was in Fontana, about 51 miles away.
In the midst of the panic, "a friend of mine found out about this, he ran to the house in the middle of the snow, and at that moment we were already in blizzard conditions. He helped me load the car, finish and get out. We left our son with him at Lake Arrowhead."
Brady began driving in blizzard conditions, with crosswinds and constant snow. “The road conditions were very difficult, my wife was in labor, and we were still 50 minutes from the hospital.”
Brady kept driving until he came down the mountain. “As soon as we got down the mountain, we started going through the red lights and got to Fontana in no time,” Brady said.
When they arrived at the hospital, the woman immediately gave birth. The doctor said that she was just minutes away from giving birth in the middle of the road. "Luckily that didn't happen," Brady said with a big smile.
The baby arrived, and her parents named her Winter Wade in honor of the winter storm in which she was born.
But the odyssey continued. On Friday morning, the routes to return home were closed.
Brady managed to acquire a resident permit to go up the mountain, but upon getting close to his home, he discovered that the streets had not been cleared for at least six blocks to his home.
“So we ended up leaving the truck a few blocks away and walking with my wife holding the newborn in her jacket through four feet of snow and me holding my 4-year-old son,” Brady said.
Now the family is reunited at his home in Lake Arrowhead, but they have not been able to leave because the roads are still closed. They hope Caltrans will quickly clean up the streets, as they will need to restock on food very soon.
The Wade’s say they are happy for the arrival of Winter, the baby who will never let this historic snowfall be forgotten.
