Family forced to eat snow after Storm Emma left them with no food and water

Storm Emma has been wreaking havoc across the UK for a while now. Among the many affected is a family that had to eat snow after getting stranded with 'no food or water' for two days.

Tracy Crosbie, her husband Alan, and their kids Alan, Keith, Bradley and Cleo – all consumed 'the white stuff' which was boiled by Tracie after they were snowed in at their house last week, from Thursday until Monday, reported the Irish Mirror.

They took desperate measures after they went almost two days without food and water as the extreme weather conditions battered down their hometown in Co Wicklow, Ireland. Tracie even said that her youngest child, the eight-year-old Cleo, suffered stomach aches after eating the snow.

"I'm traumatised. I was boiling snow in pots but then my youngest [Cleo] started getting pains in her tummy and I was worried," said the mother-of-four. "I was kind of saying am I doing right or wrong? We had no power, no water, no heating, no gas. Our water pump filter snapped on Saturday so we had to turn it off."

The 48-year-old Kennystown, Carnew resident recalled the snowdrifts being about 12 feet high and eight feet wide.

"The amount of snow my little one was drinking she was sucking it," she said about the youngest child's ordeal. "And then a few hours later she went really pale and the pains were really bad."

After she was left helpless in the dire situation, Tracy contacted Noel Ruxton at the Wicklow Alerts Facebook page on Sunday night. They were using firewood on a stove to melt the pots of snow before their fuel ran out.

Tracy's first message which came just before 8pm, read: "We are snowed-in at Kennystown, no food, no gas, no water, fire is gone out. Kids are getting pains in bellies from drinking ice. Please help."

Tracy was also concerned about her sister who lives a few miles away from her place, in a much more rural area, and her 94-year-old father, who's suffering with 'a kind of a dementia'.

The Wicklow Alert Facebook page provided excellent response to their calls for help. Another family from Commer, Co Wexford also managed to dig them out on Tuesday morning and offered significant help.

Things have turned more stable since then. Tracy said: "Baltinglass gardai and Jim Ellis were fantastic. My son Bradley and his friend Cian Doyle were very good and they managed to walk miles down to Carnew to get shopping.

"They got us and my sister bread, milk and water and the army got her the medication."