'Anyone would do the same': Family takes in 10 strangers stranded in Ontario blizzard

A man from Blenheim, Ont., and his family hosted 10 strangers overnight after they became trapped in the blizzard that pummelled Ontario last Friday.

The winter storm that battered Ontario last weekend caused power outages in some regions, hundreds of flight cancellations and treacherous driving conditions. The weather was so brutal that one family received some unexpected guests on Dec. 23 and made new friends in the process.

Denny Vervaet, who lives in Blenheim, Ont., was checking on a pot of chili he was making for himself, his wife and three children for dinner when he heard a knock on his door. This was around 5 p.m. on the night before Christmas Eve, he told CTV’s Your Morning Thursday.

“I hear a tapping on the window…I open the front door and there’s a six-foot drift, and there’s a woman standing there, shivering and hyperventilating,” he said.

Vervaet brought her inside and she told him her family’s car was stuck in a ditch. The family had been travelling from Toronto to Windsor for the holidays. He told her to bring in her family, which included a baby.

He said the storm was so powerful, there wasn’t much visibility when he peered outside. He told the woman, “Let’s get out of the cold and you’re going to have a place to stay tonight.”

There were two other vehicles trapped along with the woman’s family of five, he said. All came to Vervaet’s home and, in total, 10 guests stayed with them for the night.

“I hope anyone would do the same thing. They were stuck in ditches. I didn’t want them to stay in their cars, emergency services couldn’t get to everyone…and I make a good chili,” he said.

The guests’ children spent the evening playing Uno with his own children.

The next day, on Christmas Eve, Vervaet’s father-in-law got in his tractor and pulled the families’ cars out of the ditch, as it was uncertain when tow services would be available, he said.

When asked if his family will keep in touch with their new friends, Vervaet said “definitely."