The tale of the snow plow baby brigade

Ashley Leonardo's first baby was due on Christmas.

But when a blizzard made the day look like a snow globe in a centrifuge, the Elmwood woman decided she'd rather wait until Dec. 26.

And she did.

Sort of.

Her water broke at 7:30 Christmas night. Her midwife told her to get to the hospital.

Not long after, she and her fiancé got stuck in a snow drift on their way to Omaha. Ethan Homan, the baby's father, freed his pickup and turned back south to Elmwood.

He stopped at the fire station and offered $100 to anyone who would plow a path to Omaha.

Instead, Mike Krass and Ed Blunt offered to do it for nothing.

Blunt is volunteer captain of the rescue squad. Krass, another squad volunteer who works for the county, made some calls and lined up plows after determining medical helicopters couldn't fly in the storm.

They loaded Leonardo into the ambulance at 9:23 p.m. and headed into the teeth of the blizzard.

They chose to go north for two reasons. First, they received reports a jack-knifed semi was blocking U.S. 34 to Lincoln. Second, Leonardo had planned to deliver at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

They took Nebraska 1 as Homan followed behind in his pickup. Road grader operator Josh Bornemeier busted drifts.

Just east of Murdock, they turned back north on 310 Street, a paved county road.

Good thing grader operator Brad Rikli joined the caravan, because they encountered more drifts on the county road. Between snow piles, blowing snow and icy roads, the procession was lucky to hit a top speed of 25 mph.

Krass drove the ambulance. Blunt and Theresa Brown, a nurse who also volunteers with the rescue squad, monitored the young mother.

"She was a very good patient," Blunt said. "She calmed us down, you might say."

Leonardo recalled feeling at ease despite the tense situation. In part, she knew she was in good hands.

"I couldn't see out the front so I couldn't see what we were coming up to," she said. "So that probably helped."

Near Round the Bend Steakhouse, the convoy rolled up to the Mother of all Snow Drifts.

The plow drivers launched their assault, backing up and pounding the drift repeatedly. This thing was so big they found a car nearly buried inside - with people still in it, Blunt said.

Finally, they made it to Spur 13E, more commonly known as East Park Highway. Plow driver Mike Stubbendeck joined in and helped escort the ambulance to Interstate 80.

From there to UNMC, the going was relatively easy, Blunt said. They wheeled Leonardo into the hospital at 11:10 p.m.

A 42-mile drive had taken nearly to two hours.

As it turned out, labor took a lot longer.

Rune Leonardo Homan was born at 8:22 p.m. Dec. 26.

Looking back makes Leonardo appreciate her community even more than before, she said.

"They did an awesome job and I'm so thankful we have people in our town that will do that for each other."

After getting a cup of coffee at the hospital, the ambulance crew drove back to Elmwood.

Many of the drifts were sealing shut, but they made it all the way back to the driveway in front of the fire station.

And that's where the ambulance got stuck.