Page 36 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2019- Online Magazine

Stephen Sharon Fair
A “Rain” of
Terror
by Don Enger
n Friday, May 24th, Stephen
and Sharon Fair had
Obeen to Caprock Winery
for the rehearsal dinner for their
granddaughter, Katelyn Pope. It
was raining hard and beginning
to hail when they decided to exit
1-27 in Shallowater to get under
the overpass. It was 9 p.m., and the
hail had begun to come down at a
ferocious pace, getting larger and
larger.
When the hail subsided, but with a
hard rain still pounding, they made
the decision to continue toward
their home in Abernathy. When they
turned around under the overpass,
they drove east and took the old 87
Highway instead of circling around
to 1-27 toward Abernathy. They had
taken that route many times but
forgot about the huge dip under the
railroad that lay ahead. It was still
raining hard and was difficult to see.
About 1/4 mile before the track,
they rounded a corner and saw the
flooded road that lay ahead. Stephen
tried to stop, but it was too late. The
swift water picked up the late model
Cadillac, and they began a decline
of about 30 feet toward the track.
Sharon had the presence of mind to
roll down the window on her side.
36 Lubbock Senior Link
“I was not going to
drown in that car,”
she said. About 2/3
of the way down
the incline, the
car miraculously
turned sideways
and was pushed managed to lie against the bank,
by the current into a side ravine - with their feet still in the water, for a
trunk first. The ravine stopped the few minutes of rest.
downward trek of the vehicle, which
most likely saved their lives. “We’ve got to get out of here, or
we’re going to die,” Stephen had
Under the track, the water level was said.
already seven to eight feet deep.
In the ravine, the water level was “No, we’re not. We’re going to hang
rising quickly inside the car. “We’ve on till daylight and walk out of
got to get out, Stephen, or we’ll here,” his wife countered.
drown,” Sharon had exclaimed.
She immediately took off her coat, After catching their breaths, Sharon
thinking that if she had to swim, added, “Stephen, you’ve got to go
it would be a big hindrance. She for help. Hardly anyone uses this
climbed through the window head- road, and they will never find us.”
first, by pulling on a small tree limb Using the fence, Stephen was able to
outside the window. Sharon is 78, pull himself out of the 7-foot ravine
and Stephen is 92. After getting out and begin a trek to the railroad
the window, she told Stephen to track.
grab the small limb, pull himself After a couple of hours, Stephen
through, and she would move up to
a barbed wire fence that she could heard a train coming! When the
barely see in the dim light from the train passed by, Stephen waved his
nearby Monsanto plant. Stephen white handkerchief at the engineer.
also dragged himself out by pulling Though the train couldn’t stop, the
on the limb. Using the barb wire engineer radioed back for someone
fence, they pulled themselves up the to call 911. Meanwhile, Sharon
bank. That allowed them to go from worked her way back to the car,
chest deep water to knee deep. They which by then was submerged about