The Heroes of Cascade County for the Cold Weather Kids

40, 50, 60 below zero. That was the overnight wind chills across Montana this week. So what do you do when a school bus full of kids slides off the road in dangerously cold conditions? The Cascade County Sheriff's Office personnel sprung into action.

Here's the full message Sheriff Slaughter shared on the Cascade County Sheriff's Office Facebook page:

I love that we empower our leaders at the CCSO. Yesterday, on awful roads multiple cars slid off.

The one pictured was a school bus with children on it. This was a dangerous situation because of the extreme cold. Undersheriff Van Dyken, who was on scene, called all available deputies to his location.

He loaded them all into patrol cars and our Deputies drove them all to their elementary school.

Then, while I was pulling into the Sheriff’s office, two high school aged students slid off the road. Two of our Detention Officers, about to leave the office after a night shift, sprang into action and helped the students with their situation. They spent over 45 minutes in subzero temperatures helping while not being dressed for the conditions.

This was a dangerous situation due to the temperature and the hazardous road conditions.

Our team's quick thinking and action possibly saved lives, and all the discomfort the citizens would have suffered was extreme cold.

I'm so proud of the love and compassion our people have for our community.

We are so lucky to live in such a great place, I'm truly humbled.

-Sheriff Jesse Slaughter

LOOK: The most extreme temperatures in the history of every state

Stacker consulted 2021 data from the NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) to illustrate the hottest and coldest temperatures ever recorded in each state. Each slide also reveals the all-time highest 24-hour precipitation record and all-time highest 24-hour snowfall.

Keep reading to find out individual state records in alphabetical order.

Gallery Credit: Anuradha Varanasi