Baby born at home in blizzard

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WORCESTER, Mass., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Rescuers said they delivered a baby in her parents' Massachusetts home as the National Guard cleared the family's home of snow so they could go to the hospital.

Ericka Bueno called 911 after her water broke in the middle of a blizzard that blanketed large swaths of the Northeast with heavy snow, The Boston Globe reported Saturday.

Rescuers in a military field ambulance -- the only emergency vehicle able to traverse the heavy snow -- arrived at Bueno and boyfriend Joel Gonell's Worcester home about 10 minutes later, the Massachusetts National Guard said in a statement.

"Upon arriving on scene, it was quickly determined that the woman would not reach the hospital before giving birth and must deliver at home," Sgt. Kenneth Hickey of the National Guard said in the statement.

The baby girl, Nohely, was born only 30 minutes after Bueno placed the 911 call.

As the baby was being delivered, National Guard soldiers shoveled the walkway to the family's home, clearing a path to board them on the ambulance and take them to the hospital, the Globe reported.

"It was definitely a blessing to have them there," Bueno said in a statement. "It's just good to know that we had so many people behind us, that it wasn't just the EMTs, that we had the National Guard there."

"I was just a regular person giving birth, and they went and they shoveled us out and they made sure that we made it to the hospital. When my daughter grows up, I'm going to let her know that we had a lot of very supportive, important people there to make sure that she got to the hospital safely," she added.