The winter storm that blew through southern Manitoba created such severe whiteout conditions that a number of motorists passing by the town of Manitou were forced to spend the night there.
La Riviere resident Joy Pauls spent the day in Manitou but was unable to head home that evening. With the local hotel completely booked with stranded travelers, a friend suggested to Pauls they house people overnight at the church where Pauls volunteers at Manitou Christian Fellowship.
"And over the next few hours, we had different people that were being redirected from the hotel. They'd stopped and had supper and they came over our way. We ended up with about 12 people in total. Ranging in age, we had a young family with an 18-month-old, and they bunked in at the nursery, even had a crib. Look at that, eh? We also had a very elderly couple. But I don't know that anyone really slept well. Some of us tried sleeping on padded pews but they're not very wide."
Pauls later corrected herself saying there were actually 16 people who stayed the night.
Pauls says the lodgers included their new pastor along with people from Winkler, Notre Dame, Cartwright and Mather.
When she headed home the next morning, Pauls noticed the storm had caused a collision on the highway.
"And lots of vehicles in the ditch or just kind of off the road and it even looked to be the wrong side of the road. I can imagine lots of disorientation with zero visibility. We had a fellow whose son came and got him at 6. He sent a message saying that on the other side of La Riviere you wouldn't even know there had been a storm. like it was just fine. 511 showed the roads were bare all the way west of Pilot Mound, no visibility issues or anything. We have such strange weather here."
Despite being tired, Pauls admits it was a cool experience.