A BLIZZARD TRAGEDY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20199, 30 March 1931, Page 11

A BLIZZARD TRAGEDY.

FROZEN TO DEATH. SCHOOL CHILDREN IN AN OMNIBUS. (tWITED PBEBB ASSOCIATION —BT BLECTBIO TELEQBAPH—COP7EIGHT.) (Beceivedy March S9th, 6.40 p.m.) VANCOUVEE, March 28. A message from Towner (Colorado) describes a storm tragedy in which five children, their ages ranging from six to sixteen years, were frozen to death while huddled with eighteen others in a school omnibus which stuck in a 15ft snowdrift for 36 hours. It was revealed to-day that the children had been dismissed from school on Thursday, when a blizzard threatened to block the roads. The storm struck so suddenly that the omnibus had completed only one mile of an eleven-mile trip to the children's homes and ran into a ditch. The deep snow-drift soon engulfed the vehicle, and snow and sleet quickly buried any possible fuel supply. ~ Frightened and. hungry the children kept close together in an, attempt to keep warm. The bus driver remained with the children till Friday. Then he struck out alone to summon aid. He is still missing. , The surviving children were weak, hungry and ill. They, said that the driver kept the car-engine running to generate heat till the petrol was exhausted.. ' The blizzard was the worst of the whole winter in the Eocky Mountain region.

PLIGHT OF SURVIVORS.

WORST STORM FOR FIFTY YEARS (Received March 29th, 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 29 All the seventeen survivors are suffering from pneumonia and freezing, and have only a fighting chance for their lives. A neighbouring ranchman looking for lost cattle discovered the bus, and carried the children a mile to his tworoom hut An aeroplane from Pueblo brought two children bock. The remainder lie" on the floor of the hut, and although a physician'&nd a nurse are present, they are hampered for lack of medical supplies. The driver of the bus was -found later to-day frozen to death in a field several miles away. The oldest boy in the bus, who is alive, but Buffering from pneumonia, and whoso frozen legs and arms may have to be amputated, described what happened aftor the driver left. He aaid: "One of the children broke a window of the car by accident. We were unable to keep the cold air out. The children were then so cold that I was unable to get them to move. I started some boxing, but the matches did not last. I notioed my brother Orlo freezing. I gave him all mv clothes, except my underwear. He died, anyway. I was exhausted and I lavdown in a pile with the test." Eleven persons died in the western snowstorms. .4 teacher and twenty students were marooned in a, Kansas ctchoolhouse, but escaped without serious ill effects. A btis driver with four Sheridan Lake (Colorado) school children who were missing since Thursday morning* were found safe in a farmhouse. A seventy miles gnle accompanied the < snowstorm and the temperature waa\ bolow aero. It was the worst storm for half a century.

FIGHT AGAINST STORM. (Received March 29th, 7 p.m.) NSW YORK, March 28. , The bus driver started for help in a blizssafd at Towner also perished. .The survivors were removed to-day by rescuers, ten receiving emergency treatment. They were suffering from cold and pneumonia. Further deaths are probable. The children ■ .burned their .schoolbooks and plank seats to k£ep 'warm, but the intense cold Overcame them after a' sturdy fight. • The blizzard in the Rocky Mountains and Plainß States resulted in at least twelve 'deaths, including the Towner -bus tragedy, and three missing, believed to have perished. • v ' Scores of persons ate in a senous condition, suffering from ...frost-bite and exposure. . Twenty children. and their teacher -were, rescued from a schoolhouse at HorAce (Kansas), after being isolated for two dayß and a night. • . Physicians and charity agencies are being mobilised over a wide area, including Wyoming, Colorado/ South Dakota, Nebraska, the western parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, .and Texas. Cattle by the hundreds are standing in snowdrifts frozen to death.