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. She managed to drag herself for some distance toward the Woebbecke house before her strength gave out and she collapsed again. Wilhelm Woebbecke found her and got her home by 8 am. At this point, Lena had fallen into a coma.

Johann Albrecht, confident that his sons sheltered at the Rosefield school, left to collect them at first light. He was dumbfounded to hear from James Cotton that Johann and the four other boys were missing, while Cotton sat safe in the schoolhouse. He raised the alarm and started the search.

Reverend Huntley, still confident in his children’s safety despite the misgivings of his wife Abi, was equally shocked to hear that his children had spent the night in a haystack with May Hunt. With the Knieriems, Huntley aided in the rescue efforts, pulling the children from the straw and the cave. All of the children but Addie Knieriem were able to walk to the farmhouse. Addie’s feet were frozen solid.

Frostbite is the body’s way of protecting itself by “cutting its losses” (215). Extremities are too difficult to keep warm in freezing conditions, so the body focuses on keeping the core warm instead. When the tissues freeze, jagged ice crystals form, tearing the flesh beyond repair. The standard remedy for frostbite at the time was rubbing the affected limbs with snow. While better than exposing the limb to a sudden increase in heat, snow rubbing aggravates the tissue damage. Once the flesh warms, the tissue is already dead and gangrene sets in. Addie lost one foot and all the toes on the other to gangrene. Fred Weeks, despite suffering similar frostbite, kept his feet and hands.

Stories of miraculous survival were few and far between. Most of the discoveries on Friday the 13th were of people who had died in the snow. Women, children, and men all succumbed to the extreme hypothermia and died. Others were not found, despite the valiant efforts of the community. The Schweizers “came out in force” (221) to try to locate the missing boys from the Rosefield school. They came up empty handed on Friday and had to plan to continue the search later. The Westphalen girls of Nebraska were also still missing. Some people attempted to reconstruct the movements the children might have taken in the snow in order to find them, but it was mostly guesswork.