Credit: The Discovery Channel
The devastating ice storm of February 10, 1994, is one during which many people in the Shoals will recall the reigning Miss UNA, Jacque Rainwater, nearly lost her life when her car was crushed on Walnut Street by a falling ice-laden tree. This February marks the 25th Anniversary of that storm, and Jacque Rainwater is returning to the Shoals area to celebrate triumph over that tragedy.
During the 1994 accident, Rainwater had a broken neck, a fractured skull, punctured lungs, and injuries to her chest which literally exposed her heart. Rainwater coded on the scene twice from going into cardiac arrest, but was revived.
Told by a neurosurgeon that her daughter would probably not make it through the night, Susie Rainwater, Rainwater’s mother, along with countless friends across the community, began to hold vigil over Rainwater. With Rainwater in a coma, their vigil would last for 31 days. Doctors had told them if she did not wake within 30 days, she likely would never return. But, on day 31 Rainwater woke. Upon doing so, however, she could not see, walk, nor talk. She did not even know her family.
“I never realized how hard it was going to be for Jacque to find her way back to normal,” said Susie Rainwater. “I only knew we were going to have to fight for all that we could get, and never give up.”
Rainwater proved to be a tenacious fighter. Despite facing innumerable challenges, over the months that followed she slowly reclaimed her life. Even when doctors advised her not to return to college, she refused and eventually graduated from the University of North Alabama in 1997.
