A Very Lucky man.

A multiply forwarded email with the above title, reached us. It was about events on the foggy melting snow days mentioned a couple of posts back. I went to the spot, it's only half a mile off my route to work, and took some pictures. Quotes from the email follow.

"Actually, there were 3 lucky men, 2 of them Veterinarians, all living on East Gary's 10th line near the Grand River bridge south of the Belwood road ( Near Crawford Farm...) Someone was driving south on the 10th line, and didn't see that the river had flooded the road immediately south of the bridge due to heavy ice jams, resulting in ice piles and rushing water- his truck was swept away and immediately buried in ice floes."

This is the river from the bridge without being swollen by meltwater and without the thick fog:

These are some of the chunks of ice, now pushed to the roadside, but then swept along by the raging torrent:

"He kicked out the cab's back window, got into the box and climbed out on the roof. A neibouring Vet who lived across the road summoned another neibour and both attempted to reach him while tied off to some trees, but these 2 were also swept away, fortunately the Elora Gorge water rescue crew, and at least 3 Fire Depts- Erin, Hillsburgh and Grand Valley, responded and were able to rescue all safely."

"The road had to be closed due to piles of ice that were in places 15 feet high. One of Bruce's crew tried to get closer to the truck but fell into a hidden crevice between floes right to his shoulders, and had to be lifted out... The pickup remains buried some 20 ft off the edge of the road and about 80 feet south of the river, on the floodplain."

When I went to look the truck was gone, at least I didn't see it, I presume that this was the track through the ice boulders dug to rescue it.

"The fog was so thick that the Vet driving the pickup never saw the water until he was in it and the truck was swept away."

It gets a bit elemental sometimes, life in the country.