Survivors recall panic, chaos after deadly B.C. avalanche
REVELSTOKE, B.C.: MARCH 13, 2010 -- Boulder Mountain's Turbo Bowl in Revelstoke, B.C. is shown in this RCMP handout photo, which was taken hours after an avalanche struck on Saturday, March 13, 2010. About 200 people gathered on the mountain to watch the annual Big Iron Shootout, an annual snowmobiling event, when the snow slide hit.
Photograph by: Handout, RCMP
REVELSTOKE, B.C. — Family members identified the two men who died in an eastern British Columbia avalanche this weekend as Calgary-based oilpatch workers.
Shay Allan Snortland and Kurtis Reynolds, who worked for an oil and gas firm specializing in transporting gas drilling rigs, died during the annual Big Iron Shootout — an unsanctioned snowmobile event — around 3:30 p.m. local time Saturday.
About 200 people had gathered on the Revelstoke, B.C., mountain to watch the event when the avalanche hit, killing the two men and injuring at least 30 people.
RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said late Sunday afternoon that everyone who was on the Mounties' list had been accounted for.
"We've checked off all our names off the list," he said. "But there may be people who were never on it so the search is continuing."
On Sunday survivors told harrowing stories of being swept up by the falling snow as others described the chaos and panic as they searched for their friends.
Witnesses said the avalanche was triggered by a snowmobiler "high marking" as part of a competition between riders on the souped-up machines to see who could drive the furthest up the mountain.
"It just completely wiped out a group of 150 or 200 snowmobilers," said Greg Blair, who saw the avalanche coming and fled on his snowmobile. "Everybody just disappeared — tossed, thrown, taken with the snow. The amount of snow that came down was unbelievable."
Nathan Knox said he was swept up in the avalanche and then "spit out."
"It's like you're in a big blender," the snowmobiler said.
Snortland's widow, Janine, said she wants to know why an extreme snowmobiling event went ahead despite warnings of a heightened avalanche risk in the area.
"If you go out sledding on your own, you're taking that risk. When you have a planned event they should be taking charge . . . Obviously that's not the case," she said from her Lacombe, Alta., home Sunday.
"There was high avalanche risk, but they proceeded with the event — this is my concern," she said.
Janine noted her husband was properly outfitted with avalanche safety gear.
Snortland owned a Strathmore, Alta.-based oil rig hauling firm, which Reynolds also managed. The two men leave behind four young children.
Moskaluk said the avalanche was definitely "human triggered" and is being investigated by both the Mounties and the B.C. Coroners Service.
The slide was so powerful it "scrambled the machines and wrapped them around each other," according to one eyewitness.
Witnesses said they heard people screaming as they frantically searched amid the wreckage of snowmobiles littered in the snow.
"You could see people's arms, legs and heads sticking out of the snow," said Calgarian Dewinton Blair, who was at the mountain with his brother and uncle. "They were yelling for help and trying to get out. There were a lot of broken legs, arms and wrists."
As the chaos subsided, survivors organized a line and worked methodically to find missing people, sticking probes into the snow and digging.
A 12-year-old boy suffered a severe gash to the side of his face and was stitched up at the local hospital and released.
Four people were seriously injured, including two critically, and taken to other area hospitals, such as in Kamloops, B.C., where one remained with a broken neck.
Nineteen people had been released from hospital, police said.
Authorities, who spent most of the weekend accounting for victims and survivors, have just begun to look into what happened but are promising a full investigation.
Moskaluk said the daylong search of the area Sunday, characterized as "highly contaminated" by smashed snowmobiles and other debris, was conducted by 40 search-and-rescue specialists. Their work with probes and dogs did not turn up any other bodies. A final sweep of the area is to be conducted Monday.
One local police officer who assisted in that search said he'd never seen anything like it.
"A lot of these people were traumatized," he said. "Grown men were hugging and crying. It was unreal."
Many of the estimated 200 people, including Snortland and Reynolds, were drawn to the mountain by the Big Iron Shootout. The "extreme high-marking" event sees snowmobilers push their machines as high up on the slope as possible, a practice known to trigger avalanches.
Many of the participants are said to come from Calgary and drive modified snowmobiles that can run engines as powerful as 400 horsepower.
Organized by a man known around Revelstoke as "Ozone Dave," the event is unsanctioned and has been the source of controversy. Members of Revelstoke's snowmobiling community have expressed safety concerns about the gathering. So-called Ozone Dave left Revelstoke by Sunday morning, according to the hotel where he was registered.
Past Big Iron Shootout events have ended with people injured in alcohol-related incidents, damaged trees and mounds of trash left in the snow, according to local reports.
Revelstoke Mayor David Raven said the informal gathering takes place outside city limits and is beyond the reach of municipal regulation.
"Clearly, the city has no role whatsoever in that event," Raven said Sunday. "The city has no role or legal responsibility over that event in any way, shape or form," he said.
The event is held on Crown land, which means anyone can access it. Moskaluk said the RCMP wants to speak with anyone who helped organize the Big Iron Shootout that was being held at the alpine area called Turbo Bowl.
The Canadian Avalanche Centre had issued a special warning on Friday that backcountry snow conditions were "very dangerous."
"Conditions in the mountains for the past six or seven weeks have been very tricky," Karl Klassen, a spokesman for the Centre, told reporters at a news conference Sunday morning. "The snowpack is still very unstable."
Several participants in the unsanctioned event said they knew the avalanche risk was high, but were enticed by the sunny weather and the metre of fresh snow.
One longtime snowmobiler said that Boulder Mountain is considered one of the safer areas. Derek Blair said he has snowmobiled through the area more than 800 times and he's never witnessed anything like what happened Saturday.
"It really is an area just not known for being dangerous. It's known for being one of the best spots in the world that you can go to," he said.
Revelstoke is located in eastern British Columbia, approximately 550 kilometres northeast of Vancouver and 400 kilometres west of Calgary.
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell thanked the rescuers on Sunday, calling the avalanche a "terrible tragedy."
"I want to commend the efforts of rescue personnel and volunteers who quickly responded to those in need and prevented further tragedies," Campbell said in a news release.
There have been at least 10 avalanches in the Kootenay-Boundary area since Friday, as snow continues to pile up, creating weak layers in the snowpack that can cause major slides.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar