Oklahomans Lend Helping Hand During Winter Storm

Dan Bewley, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- The massive winter storm has not been short of some true Oklahoma moments.

From neighbors helping neighbors to complete strangers extending a helping hand, the Oklahoma spirit has shined through the mountain of snow.

It's been one of those kinds of days for Tulsa homeowners.

"I'm going to dig out to the road," Ric Carradini said.

Shovel in hand, clearing a path to get out of their home. But not everyone was stuck in a home, dozens and dozens of drivers were stuck in the snow.

Celisa Rowland was one of those.

"You see it on television but you don't realize until you're in it," she said, crying.

She's now staying at the Hard Rock Hotel, but how she got there is a true Oklahoma moment.

"Words can't even explain how I felt about it," she said.

Rowland had tried to make it to work from her Pryor home Tuesday morning. Around 6:30 she changed her mind and turned around. Soon after, her car got stuck near the Will Rogers Turnpike entrance and Highway 412. For nine-and-a-half hours she sat in her car wondering how she was going to get to safety.

As the snow fell, the fear began to set in.

"Oh yeah, and then I was thinking it's a mile and-a-half walk, at least, because I was way down there to the turnpike and I was just thinking how am I going to make it back because I was almost out of gas," she said.

"She'd been there a long time," Huey McClure said.

But then Huey McClure came to the rescue. His Catoosa wrecker is a one-man operation.

"He's awesome, I mean," Rowland said.

McClure couldn't get Rowland's car out of the snow but he could give her a ride. He took her to the Hard Rock, helped her get a room and didn't charge a thing. It may seem a small gesture but Rowland reminds that he passed on a paying job to help a stranded stranger.

"It was awesome, he saved my life," she said.

"Just one of those things, you know. Wasn't raised that way," McClure said. "I am in this for a living but it was a life or death for me out there."

On Wednesday, McClure gave another man a ride, free of charge, to the Hard Rock and he even drove back to the man's vehicle to pick up some medications he had left behind.