Posted on 12/22/2011 9:11:03 PM PST by Kartographer
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - Rescuers on Wednesday pulled a family from a sport utility vehicle that had been buried in a snowdrift on a rural highway in the southwestern state of New Mexico 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 the highway 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
New Mexico PING!
A minor (as it turned out), but true SHTF story.
Which is why you should have some extra blankets and food like M&Ms and beef jerkey in your car. Don’t really need water, just something to melt snow in.
It was the SUV’s fault. It was trying to kill them.
Important to have a bug out bag in your trunk. Some ideas I’ve come up with:
A few cans of sterno.
Matches.
A couple of newspapers (starting fires, stuffing for insulation).
Cans of Progresso soup with the pull of top.
Hot chocolate.
Wool blankets (at least fleece, but wool is better).
One of those flare-orange emergency tents - can be use to drape over a smashed window, over the roof of the car to be seen from the air.
Emergency flares.
Water (leave room in the bottle for expansion if it freezes) such as four gallon aqua-tainer.
Flash light and batteries.
Mess kit.
Sporks.
Bags of instant oatmeal.
First aid kit.
Bag of tootsie rolls or similar quick energy.
Couple of cans of fix-of-flat.
Folding shovel.
Sven-type folding saw.
Decent two-way radios with weather channels.
and a pair of snowshoes ;o)
They were on a ski trip so I would assume they had skis.
M&M’s are also good in the desert. They melt in your mouth, not in your hand.
It would be excellent if everyone did that. One of my pet peeves is someone buying an SUV and then thinking they can go anywhere. Most SUVs are shod with plain road tires. A friend of mine objected to the noise a true off road capable tire makes. When they replaced the tires the new tires weren’t able to move the vehicle, even in 4 low, on wet grass on a very slight slope. I LMAO.
Yes, they’re pretty good, too.
But that alcohol makes me nervous. It’s fairly volatile and spreads quickly when it spills. You also need the correct grade of alcohol. The wrong kind either doesn’t work right or can give you an eyebrow singe from a flare-up.
I also like the Swiss army Volcano stove because you can shove just about anything in it that will burn (twigs, shavings) and it will boil water.
Personal locator beacons are a lot less expensive than they used to be. They could have been found in an hour if they had one.
Also in this guys case a few flares may have gotten them rescue a who;e lot sooner.
I also like the Esbit German stove.
But those fuel cakes (what is it, Triox), whoa do they smell horribly like fish.
I used one on a hunting trip in Maine last year and my pack smelled like fish for the entire trip. I had to keep looking out for bears, fearing they’d smell it and think it food.
Funny. I just acquired a 1971 IH Travelall 1210 (3/4 ton) 4wd with a granny gear. It’s in great shape, but I’m still “prepping” it. I can’t wait to get it off road and see how it does.
I drive a Mazda Tribute, which is a nice little compact SUV (4WD). Took it hunting and found out that you can’t really take it over very rough terrain (boulders, etc.) because the muffler hangs down so low. Pretty poor design. Other than that, it’s a nice little pavement runner in bad weather.
Recently my family and I broke down in a remote rural area and were stuck for about ten hours, overnight, until a family member arrived to help. It was below freezing out, and we couldn’t run the vehicle because of the nature of the breakdown. Even though we had small children aboard, it wasn’t really that big of a deal. A minor inconvenience really, simply because we had plenty of blankets, warm clothes, water and food aboard.
If we didn’t have those basic items, it could have been very serious. If you’re going on the road in the winter, be prepared to weather just about anything. It’s not a game.
Another reason that we should register snow drifts, so this does not happen again.
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