Massive search to resume after B.C. avalanche

[bemildred]

Source: CTV

The search for an unknown number of missing spectators will resume at daybreak Sunday, after an avalanche in the British Columbia interior hit when as many as 200 people were gathered for a snowmobile event.

The avalanche struck at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, when snowmobilers were gathered for the Big Iron Shoot Out, an annual informal event on Boulder Mountain, near Revelstoke, B.C., about 200 kilometres northeast of Kelowna.

Witnesses described the avalanche as a tidal wave of snow crashing down on those gathered.

By late Saturday night, the RCMP confirmed that three people were dead and at least 12 injured. Four patients were transferred to larger hospitals because of the severity of their injuries, a spokesperson for Interior Health told The Canadian Press.

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100314/revelstoke_avalanche_100314/20100314?hub=Canada

[greiner3]

1. I really, really hope;

The ex-governor and her husband were not among the spectators.

[Cleita]

2. With their socialist health care those four patients transferred to larger

hospitals don't have to worry about how it's going to be paid for.

[earcandle]

3. Good point!

[bemildred]

4. 2 die as avalanche hits snowmobile rally in Canada

At least two people were killed and 30 injured after a massive avalanche smothered a high-risk snowmobile rally in southern British Columbia, police said Sunday.

"It's certainly a small miracle that we didn't end up with a complete, massive group buried under the snow," said Cpl. Dan Moskaluk of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Most of the estimated 200 spectators and participants were accounted for, he said.

An avalanche 150 yards wide and as much as 1.6 miles long thundered down a steep snow bowl at the Canadian Rocky Mountain resort of Revelstoke, where competitors were attempting to scale the treacherous slope on high-powered snow machines during an unsanctioned rally Saturday afternoon.

"From the information that we have, it was triggered by the snowmobilers," said Greg Johnson, forecaster at the Canadian Avalanche Center in Revelstoke. "It swept over lots and lots of snowmobiles, trees. It is a very large avalanche, and there is debris everywhere."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-canada-avalanche15-2010mar15,0,1796014.story

[Blandocyte]

5. Scary stuff.

I hope everybody will be ok.

[provis99]

6. I find it really hard to feel sorry for these idiot jackasses.

The morons all started their stupid snowmobiles at the same time, in an avalanche area, as a sort of macho thing. As far as I'm concerned, it's Darwin's Law at work, thinning the stupid from the rest of the herd.

[laundry_queen]

7. not to mention the warnings

That morning I was watching the weather on tv and there was a very serious avalance warning for those areas, I think i heard the anchor say it was a very dangerous situation. If I knew that in the morning, sitting here a good 8 hour drive away, how could they have not known that? And how could they have ignored it if they knew? Absolutely without a doubt willful ignorance here. I do find it hard to feel sorry for them with the dire warnings that were out.

[bemildred]

8. Darwin Award?

Well, at least a nomination.

[Bluebear]

9. Lovely.