Texas family rescued from snowdrift in New Mexico

[MNeagle]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Rescuers Wednesday pulled a Texas family from a car (http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s2424159.shtml?cat=504&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=kob4#) that had been buried in a snowdrift for nearly two days on a rural northeastern New Mexico highway.

State police say rescuers had to dig through four feet of ice and snow to free the Higgins family of Santa Fe, whose red Yukon got stuck on U.S. (http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s2424159.shtml?cat=504&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=kob4#) 56 near Springer when a blizzard moved through the area Monday.

Police say David and Yvonne Higgins and their 5-year-old daughter were clinging to each other and lethargic when they were found about 2:45 Wednesday morning.
The family is recovering at Miners Colfax Medical Center in Raton.

State police say they got a distress call and launched a search for the family Tuesday evening.

The Higgins were among 32 vehicles (http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s2424159.shtml?cat=504&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=kob4#) state police and guardsmen rescued from the storm, but they were the only ones who police say needed medical attention.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s2424159.shtml?cat=504&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=kob4

[zap]

If I ever got caught in snowy conditions I would hope that you were there MN, cause I am pretty sure you would know what to do , I would have no idea.

[MNeagle]

Rule #1 Stay with your vehicle.

[Dogman]

Mn don't people in your country have emergency kits that they carry in there cars/trucks during winter? Most people I have met that live in snow country have had them, food, blankets and stuff, that they use if stranded in the snow!

The people in your post may have been clueless I am just basing my thoughts on people I have met in Wyoming, everyone had a pack made up and it went with them everywhere they would go.

[MNeagle]

Of course people should, now whether or not they do is another story.

And really, it applies for any vehicle, year-round. I posted another story this summer(?) about the elderly dude nearly dying stranded in the desert.

[MNeagle]

http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?44261-Man-84-found-alive-in-Ariz.-desert-after-5-days&highlight=desert

Was actually last Feb!!

[Dogman]

Good info if traveling away from populated areas, sort of like the boy scout mantra "be prepared". And the farther off the beaten path, be more prepared.

[EE_]

syphon some gas and burn the spare tire to signal

[MNeagle]

Missing Arizona student found snowbound in vehicle

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/kjmVjizroQE0M3Nlej7hqQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/ap/ap_logo_106.png (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=116vh5pjs/EXP=1325736694/**http%3A//www.ap.org/)By FELICIA FONSECA | AP – 27 mins ago






PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona State University student packed a water bottle with snow and let it melt under the sun for drinking water while she was stranded for more than a week, authorities said Wednesday after the 23-year-old was discovered in a remote area of east-central Arizona.

Lauren Weinberg was last seen leaving her mother's home in south Phoenix on Dec. 11 and told authorities she became stuck in the snow a day later, Coconino County sheriff's spokesman Gerry Blair. Two U.S. Forest Service employees on snowmobiles found her Wednesday about 45 miles southeast of Winslow while they were checking if gates on forest roads were closed.

"I am so thankful to be alive and warm," Weinberg said through a spokeswoman at the Flagstaff Medical Center, where she was taken. "Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers, because they worked. There were times I was afraid but mostly I had faith I would be found."

Other than being cold, hungry and thirsty, Weinberg was in good condition, lucid and speaking coherently, Blair said.

The undergraduate student was driving around with no specific destination, Blair said, when she drove south from Winslow toward the Mogollon Rim — a prominent line of cliffs that divides the state's high country from the desert.

The paved road turned into a dirt road. Weinberg stopped her vehicle at a fence line and when she attempted to move a gate she found that it was stuck in the snow, according to Blair. Soon, her car was stuck as well.

Weinberg had two candy bars with her and told a sheriff's deputy that she put snow in a water bottle and placed it atop the sedan she was driving so it would melt, Blair said. She wasn't prepared for the winter conditions and did not have a heavy coat or blankets, Blair said.

Weather forecasters and authorities said her survival was remarkable, given the more than 2 feet of snow in the area and temperatures that dipped to near zero some of the nights. Blair said Weinberg had a cellphone but the battery was dead.

"It's pretty harrowing that she'd been there since the 12th in an area that's totally foreign to her," he said. "We're certainly very happy that we found her, and we found her alive."

A strong winter storm hit the area the day Weinberg became stranded and hung around for two more days, followed by even colder temperatures, said Chris Outler of the National Weather Service in Flagstaff. Daytime temperatures in the town of Heber, about 20 miles to the northeast, were in the mid- to low-30s over the past 10 days.

Phoenix police told local TV station KTVK that Weinberg had purchased items at convenience stores in Chandler, Superior and Show Low on Dec. 11 and in Holbrook the following day, but there was no other sign of her since then.

Weinberg, who is studying supply chain management, missed her final examinations at school, and her family was concerned because her behavior was out of the ordinary, police told the station.

Weinberg disappeared less than a week after an elderly New Mexico couple took a wrong turn and got stranded on a remote forest road in eastern Arizona. They survived two winter storms over five days before the woman collapsed and died as they tried to hike to safety.

"She's very lucky," Outler said of Weinberg.

http://news.yahoo.com/missing-arizona-student-found-snowbound-vehicle-235412293.html

[MNeagle]

more detail on the OP:

Texas family rescued from snowdrift in NM

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/kjmVjizroQE0M3Nlej7hqQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/ap/ap_logo_106.png (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/SIG=116vttiol/EXP=1325737410/**http%3A//www.ap.org/)By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN | AP – 1 hr 29 mins ago






ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Rescuers on Wednesday pulled a Texas family from an SUV that had been buried in a snowdrift on a rural New Mexico highway for nearly two days.

State police said rescuers had to dig through 4 feet of ice and snow to free the Higgins family, whose red GMC Yukon got stuck on U.S. 56 near Springer when a blizzard moved through the area Monday.

Rescuers found David and Yvonne Higgins and their 5-year-old daughter Hannah clinging to each other and lethargic early Wednesday morning. The family is recovering at Miners Colfax Medical Center in Raton.

David Higgins told The Associated Press he and his wife both have pneumonia but his daughter is fine. He said he was glad to be able to talk about his ordeal because he had feared that he and his family might not be found.

"By 9 or 10 Monday night, I realized there was solid snow outside my window. I tried to shove my arm through the top of the window. I thought it can't be that deep," the 48-year-old father said. "I pushed as hard as I could. My arm went about 16 inches and there was still snow."

The family, who had left their home near League City, Texas, on Sunday for a ski trip at Angel Fire in northern New Mexico, started to hit bad weather soon after they crossed the state line into New Mexico on Monday afternoon.

They had checked road conditions. Difficult driving was reported but the road was still open. They followed a snowplow for a while, but visibility dropped to zero.

"It was white. You couldn't even see the yellow line," David said.

It was getting so bad that he had slowed to about 5 mph.

"You're thinking there are these people from Colorado and New Mexico behind us going, 'Those Texas drivers, they don't know how to drive in this snow,'" he said. "Then I'm thinking to myself, 'How can they drive in this?' You can't even see."

Despite having snow tires on their SUV, the snow stopped the family in their tracks. David Higgins tried backing up and then driving forward again. He made some progress but then the back end slipped around and the vehicle started to slide down an embankment.

He was able to keep the car running for a couple of hours, but when he went to get out to clear the exhaust pipe, his door was blocked.
Early on, the family could hear vehicles passing, so they tried honking the horn. That didn't work.

The Higginses had their ski gear, plenty of water to drink, sandwiches, chips and Chex mix. But as the hours passed, it seems as if they were working harder to breathe inside the buried SUV.

"We weren't sure of it, but we think we were running out of air. That was spooky," he said.

Higgins was able to reach his brother in Texas by cellphone and let him know the family's general location. The distress call was relayed to state police, which launched a search for the family Tuesday evening.

The National Guard was called out, along with state transportation workers. State highway trucks with plows and rescuers in four-wheel-drive vehicles pushed through heavy snow and drifts as high as 10 feet as teams probed the snow looking for the family's SUV.

One of the rescuers hit the hood, and the digging started.

Higgins said rescuers had to break the window to get to him and his family.

"They pulled us up and out of it," he said. "The rescuer took pictures and it looked like a rabbit hole. We were 3 to 4 feet above the vehicle."

The Higginses were among 32 vehicles state police and guardsmen rescued from the storm, but they were the only ones who police say needed medical attention.

"Tired and whooped" is how Higgins described his family after their ordeal.

They had a steady stream of visitors at the hospital Wednesday as state police officers and rescue workers came to check on them.

Higgins' parents were on their way to New Mexico on Wednesday night to help the couple. Whether they would make it home in time for Christmas was still unclear, since Higgins said his wife still wasn't feeling up to a long trip.

He was able to joke that a ski vacation was definitely out this year, but he wouldn't mind taking his family on a cross-country trip next summer — when there's no chance of it snowing. He said his daughter loves to go camping and there are plenty of places he and his wife have yet to see.

Playing games on their cellphones and watching movies on his daughter's travel DVD player helped pass the time, but Higgins admits the thought of not making it out alive started to cross his mind after a day of being buried.

"We didn't realize how deep the snow was," he said.

Higgins had a simple message for travelers this winter: Throw a case of water and a sleeping bag in the car.

"It will be there if you need it," he said. "I could see if we weren't half as prepared as we were, it could have been a worse outcome."

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-family-rescued-snowdrift-nm-004225507.html

[muffin]

Yep, it's a good idea. We keep BOB in EVERY vehicle. I even made one for my (single) mom. Of course, she and my sister made fun of me for it but whatever. I just went through our's about a month ago. Gotta make sure the stuff is still good....