WATCH ABOVE: Baby Lucy Grace was born in a fire station at the height of the monster storm that swept into South Buffalo. Rich Newberg reports.
TORONTO – An expecting mother was forced to give birth at a Buffalo fire station after being unable to reach the hospital after a lake-effect snowstorm pounded upstate New York Tuesday.
The Buffalo area, which is now buried in seven feet of snow, left motorists stranded or trapped in their homes.
READ MORE: Roofs begin collapsing under heavy weight of snow in Buffalo
Bethany Hojnacki went into labour around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday as the snow began pounding her neighbourhood, The Buffalo News reports.
With the roads to Mercy Hospital impassable, Hojnacki’s husband, Jared, managed to flag down firefighters who were attempting to free a driver stuck in the snowstorm.
It was discovered the stranded motorist was a labour and delivery nurse identified as Denise Perry who works at Mercy hospital.
Firefighters were still unable to make it to the hospital so they took Hojnacki and Perry to a nearby fire station. A second nurse, stranded by the weather, was brought to the fire station as well.
READ MORE: Bills-Jets game will not be played in snowbound Buffalo Sunday
It was there in the fire hall Lucy Grace Hojnacki entered the world.
“I said can you please help me get in the right position. And then two pushes and out she came,” Hojnacki told a CBS reporter.
Less than an hour after Lucy was born, the mom and newborn were transported by ambulance to Mercy hospital, escorted by snowmobiles and a snowplough for good measure.
“They didn’t act freaked out or anything. They just said ‘we got this’ and everything was going to be okay,” the new mom said, referring to the two nurses.
“Denise was our first angel, really, that God put right where we needed her to be,” Jared said,
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