It was dark, and visibility was low as TJ Henderson made his way through the drifting snow. He’d already helped out some people whose car had slid into the ditch behind him. But before long, Henderson was stuck in the ditch himself.

Fortunately for him, a stranger came along out of the cold night in a tractor.

“There was a man who saved countless people with a tractor, up and down (U.S. Highway) 169 between Fort Dodge and Harcourt,” Henderson said. “We were choking on fumes in a truck, and he saved us. He wouldn’t accept any money.

“Not a lot of people would do what he did.”

-Submitted photo
TJ Henderson said after his pickup was stuck out all night in the blizzard, it may never run again. Henderson said he and some others with him were rescued by a Harcourt man in a tractor.

Henderson said he was on his way home from a funeral when the weather got bad. There was another car following along behind him, and he saw them go into the ditch.

“So they got in with me,” he said. “Then we went in the ditch too.”

“We were there from 8:30 to 3:30 in the morning,” he said. “Snow completely covered the exhaust pipe.”

Then along came this “Huge John Deere tractor with tracks on it, and a blade,” Henderson said.

The man rescued Henderson, and later towed Henderson’s truck all the way to Harcourt.

The engine is filled with snow, and may be as damaged as if it had gone through a flood.

“It probably is totaled,” he said.

The man in the tractor kept helping people all night, Henderson said.

“He started 1:30, 2 in the morning,” Henderson said. “I saw him again at 4 a.m. with four people in his tractor.

“About 8:30 Sunday morning, I asked him if he’d saved anyone else, and he texted back, ‘Still saving.'”

If the tractor was hauling people out in the middle of a blizzard, that may not be the best idea, said Sheriff Jim Stubbs.

“The intent was good,” Stubbs said. “If you’re well lit — but visibility was pretty poor Saturday night into Sunday morning.

“It’s good to get people out of their cars,” he continued. “The trying to pull cars out would be the worst end, because people coming down the road don’t see you, and also they can’t stop.

“When you go to pull somebody out, tractor, pickup, whatever, in circumstances like that, you’re really putting people at risk.”

That’s the reason a tow ban goes into effect, he said. It’s not safe even for the professionals to be out moving vehicles.

Fortunately Stubbs said he hadn’t heard of any serious injuries because of people being stuck in snow in the area.

“Have a lot of blankets and snacks in your car,” he said. “If you go in your ditch, odds are you’re going to be there for a while. People just can’t get to you.”

“And Saturday night into Sunday, state plows were pulled off the road, and the county plows were off the road. It’s kind of a no-mans land, out in some places.”

It’s best to stay in on nights like that, he said.

“You have to ask, is the risk worth the reward, so to speak,” he said.