Snow story: City worker stranded trying to help another

Staff photo: Tony Bullocks

Wastewater Superintendent Durwood Billington, left, and Phillip Vigil pose for a photo Tuesday’s afternoon at the wastewater treatment plant.

Durwood Billington understands how people got stuck in the blizzard Saturday night.

It happened to him and his associate at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

Their ordeals started about 9 p.m. Saturday when Phillip Vigil called to report his vehicle was stuck in a snow drift and he couldn’t get out to relieve Billington, the plant superintendent.

No problem, Billington thought. He would just hop in a front-end loader and dig Vigil out before the storm got too bad.

Minutes later, the storm was already too bad.

“We couldn’t see where we were going,” Billington said.

The loader quickly became high-centered on a drift and now the rescuer needed rescuing.

Long story short, both men were trapped until about 11 a.m. Sunday, more than 12 hours later, and neither suffered serious injury.

But there was plenty of drama for both in between.

Vigil, rescued by emergency responders, had to be treated at Plains Regional Medical Center for bronchitis brought on by the ordeal, Billington said.

“Phillip was one of our biggest concerns because we had lost contact with him,” said Curry County Emergency Management Coordinator Dan Heerding. “That was probably our biggest feeling of helplessness. We knew his vehicle was already dead and he was sitting in the cold for so long.”

After reaching him, it took workers hours to dig their way to pull him from his vehicle, Billington and Heerding said.

Billington, 50, stayed put in the heated cabin of the loader until he ran out of gas. Then, since his house south of Clovis was just 500 feet away, he made the decision to try and walk home in the 40-mph sustained winds, swirling snow, zero visibility and drifts he estimated were as high as 13 feet.

“I finally decided I was going to freeze to death in the loader or freeze to death trying to get home,” he said.

The walk would have taken five minutes on a normal day. It took 45 minutes Sunday morning, and he mostly had to crawl.

“Every time I tried to take a step, I would sink down to my waist. I finally had to literally crawl on my hands and knees. It was the only way I could get across,” he said.

Before anyone complains that the city should not make people work when the weather’s bad, Billington wants residents to understand this:

If the power goes out at the wastewater treatment plant — not an unlikely scenario in a vicious storm like this weekend — a generator kicks in, but breakers have to be reset. If no one is at the plant to restart the equipment, 230 miles of Clovis sewer lines will start backing up within hours.

“Thank God Farmers Electric kept the power on all night,” Billington said.

Nearly 200 city, county and state rescue workers spent about 40 sleepless hours helping stranded motorists such as Vigil and Billington, officials have said.

Billington said many of those stranded are not to blame.

“This thing hit so fast they didn’t have a chance to get home. Phillip was trying to get to work. He is so very adamant about doing what he needs to do and such a good employee.

“We’ve got people working all over the city like that. The city’s got some true heroes. I really hope they get some recognition.”

Both men were back at work on Tuesday.