STORM TRAGEDY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 30 March 1931, Page 5

STORM TRAGEDY

BLIZZARD IN COLORADO SCHOOL CHILDREN FROZEN TO DEATH BUS ENGULFED IN SNOW DRIFT (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) VANCOUVER, 28th March. A message from Towner, Colorado, describes a storm tragedy in which five children aged from 6 to 16 years, froze to deatii while huddled with 18 others in a school omnibus stuck in a 15 foot snow drift for 30 hours. 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 completed only one of an 11-mile trip to the children’s homes, and ran into a ditch. A 15 foot drift soon engulfed the vehicle and snow ami sleet quickly buried any possible fuel supply. The children, frightened and hungry, kept close together in an attempt to keep warm. The omnibus driver remained with the children till Friday and then struck out alone to summon aid. He is still missing. The surviving children were weak, hungry and ill, and stated that the driver kept the car engine running to generate heat till the petrol was exhausted.

The blizzard was the worst of the winter in the Rocky Mountains region.

’BUS DRIVER PERISHES RESCUE OF SURVIVING CHILDREN NEW YORK, 28th March. The bus driver who started for help in the blizzard at Towner also perished. The survivors were removed to-day by rescuers.’ Ten are receiving emergency treatment, suffering from cold and pneumonia, with further deaths probable. ,

The children burned their school books and plank seats to keep warm, but the intense cold overcame them after a sturdy fight. All the 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 youngsters a mile to his tworoom hut’ An airplane from Pueblow brought two of the youngsters back. The remainder lie on the floor of the hut, and although a physician and a nurse are present they arc hampered for lack of medical supplies. The drivei’ of the bus was found later to-day frozen to deatii in a field several miles away. Bryan Untied, 13 years, the oldest boy in the bus, who is alive but suffering from pneumonia and whoso frozen legs and arms may have to be amputated, describing what happened after the driver left, said: “One of the kids broke a window of the car by accident and we were unable to keep the cold air out. The kids were then so cold that 1 was unable to get them to move. I started some boxing matches, but they did not last. I noticed my brother Orlo freezing. I gave him all my clothes except my underwear. He died anyway. I was exhausted and lay down in a pile with the rest.”

WORST STORM FOR FIFTY YEARS NEW YORK, 28th March. Eleven persons died in western snowstorms. A teacher and twenty students were marooned in a Kansas schoolhouse, but escaped without serious ill effects. A bus driver, with four Sheriden school children, missing since Thursday morning, were found safe in a farmhouse.

A seventy miles gale was accompanied by a snowstorm and temperatures were sub-zero. It was the worst storm for half a century. The blizzard in the Rocky Mountains and the plains States resulted in at least twelve deaths, including the Towner bus tragedy, and three are missing, believed to have perished. Scores are in a serious condition suffering from frostbite and exposure. Physicians and charity agencies are being mobilised over . a wide area, including Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, the western parts of Kansas, Oklohoma and Texas. Cattle by the hundreds are standing in snowdrifts, frozen to death.