Recently Holly Franklin found herself grateful for the help of some local residents.

During the winter storm that occurred on Monday, Franklin found herself stranded on the highway on her way home to Cadillac and was rescued by nearby neighbor Gord Martens as she explains.

"A ski-doo came up out of the ditch and the gentleman said he lived just a mile behind us and we were more then welcome to come back to his house and wait out the storm. We diliberated for a little longer and then decided that it was time and we all needed to preserve gas so that we could get home when it was safe."

Franklin had been working in Swift Current and was told the storm was rolling in and was told to make plans to head home around noon. She says that as she travelled things got worse and worse and eventually traffic came to a complete standstill just outside of Blumenort. She believes there was a jackniffed semi in front so that traffic could not travel any further. 

Franklin says she was sitting on the highway trying to figure out what to do and many vehicles were texting back and forth. Some people knew each other and the rest had just met by just walking back and forth between vehicles. 

According to Franklin, in total eleven people ended up spending the night at Lois and Gord's Marten's house that evening. 

Franklin says that the Marten's offer of accommodation gave her a sense of relief.

"It was just a huge relief to be off the highway and know that we could stay as long as we needed. They opened their bathrooms and served supper and gave everybody a place to sleep and a clean toothbrush and toothpaste. It was just complete relief to know that we were good as long as we needed to be there and could get home when we needed to."

Franklin says she was on the road for about 5 hours before going to the house. She adds that Gord spent most of the evening out with his ski-doo and at times his tractor, getting people out of the ditch or delivering meals and bottles of water to vehicles that were staying on the road. He also spent time trying to find paths for people to get home on grid roads and if they got stuck he helped them out again.

Franklin adds that Gord was out well past midnight helping others.