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Show sufficient traction. He jacked up the car and put a chain on the left rear wheel. The girls remained in the car. J. then started ahead in his highway truck to pull Rev. H. back down the road. The time was approximately 0930 hours. Suddenly, the air was filled with dense, fine snow, making breathing almost impossible. The East Riverside avalanchehad struck again. The air blast pushed J.' s heavy highway truck back down the road into another truck behind him. When the air cleared, the highway and canyon belowware filled with snow. There was no sign of the H.' s car or its occupants. It was evident they had been swept off the highway into the gorge and were buried under tons of snow. RESCUE A call for help was sent over the highway radio from one of the trucks, and while two of the men began to search the snow, the third walked down the road about a mile to get a bulldozer. All three trucks were stuck in snow that had been deposited on the road, but rone of the highway men were injured. The local sheriff arrived and took charge about 1000 hours, followed by about 20 men. Highway worker J. was taken back to Ouray in a state of shock for treatment by a doctor. Only a few probes of various design and length were available, but crews shoveled whenever anything suspicious was contacted. A systematic search was not conducted. The snow was 50 to 60 feet deep in the canyon below the road, and temperatures dropped to below zero and blowing wind continued to drift the snow. These conditions made the search difficult, but it was continued until dark. On Monday, about 50 volunteers helped with the search, and probe lines searched the " most likely" locations. Dogs and metal detectors were brought to the scene but failed to locate either the car or any of the victims. The services of trained Forest Service avalanche men and ski patrolmen were offered ( they were within 45 minutes driving time) on both Sunday and Monday, but the offers were declined by the rescue leaders. Monday's search failed to turn up any clues. Tuesday three bulldozers were brought to the scene and began excavation. Miscellaneous probing was also done. This type of searching was continued throughout the week. On several occasions the search was halted until the State Highway 75mm howitzer could be fired to eliminate any slide hazards that threatened the searchers. In addition to the mine detectors and dogs, a special metal detector designed for avalanche work was brought in from California, and divining rods and witching sticks were tried-- all to no avail. As each successive layer of snowwas dozed off, it was pushed on down the canyon. The search was conducted from a point below where the car was last seen on the road and downstream to a small dropoff in the deposited snow. This dropoff was 6 to 8 feet high, and was thought to be the toe of the debris. It was located about 250 feet downstream from the point where Rev. H.' s car had been parked on the road. After the first victim was located, it was realized that this dropoff was not the toe, but merely a small waterfall or rapid drop in the creek bottom. The avalanchehad 89 |
