CROATIA: As fierce winds bury roads in snow mountain rescue team gets stuck while returning an elderly woman from hospital to her snowbound village

Record ID: 863236

  • Title: CROATIA: As fierce winds bury roads in snow mountain rescue team gets stuck while returning an elderly woman from hospital to her snowbound village
  • Date: 8th February 2012
  • Summary: GLAVINA DONJA, CROATIA (FEBRUARY 7, 2012) (REUTERS) PEOPLE WALKING ON SNOW JEEP STUCK IN SNOW RESCUER EXITING JEEP RESCUER TRYING TO UNBLOCK JEEP'S EXHAUST (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) MEMBER OF MOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAM STIPE BUSELIC SAYING: "We simply got stuck with our vehicle. There was strong wind carrying snow, and despite us having an all-terrain vehicle with four wheel drive, we didn't make it through and were eventually forced to save our skins." DETAIL OF RESCUER JACKET WITH MOUNTAIN RESCUE SERVICE LOGO (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) MEMBER OF MOUNTAIN RESCUE SERVICE STIPE BUSELIC SAYING: "So we are still waiting today for the road to be cleared, the snow covering the road is now over one metre deep and we weren't able to complete our job. So we are stuck here and we cannot work on other things until we solve this situation with the elderly woman." MAN WALKING DOWN SNOW-COVERED ROAD SMALL SNOW PLOUGH CLEARING SNOW
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Croatia, Croatia
  • City:
  • Country: Croatia
  • Topics: Weather
  • Reuters ID: LVAC9WHNZ36VQ7MGVT1V211V25OD
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A mountain rescue team was left stranded on Tuesday (February 7) in the village of Glavina Donja near Imotski in southern Croatia while trying to evacuate an elderly woman from her snowbound village.
    The rescuers, who worked on helping villagers cope with days of unprecedented amounts of snowfall in the area, got stuck due to strong winds which buried a previously cleared road in one metre of snow in a matter of hours.
    "We simply got stuck with our vehicle. There was strong wind carrying snow, and despite us having an all-terrain vehicle with four wheel drive, we didn't make it through and were eventually forced to save ourselves," Stipe Buselic of the Mountain Rescue Service said.
    The rescuers were transporting an elderly woman back to her home in a remote village after they had earlier taken her to a local hospital to receive medical treatment. After their vehicle got stranded, the rescuers sought shelter at a nearby villagers' house.
    "So today we are still waiting for the road to be cleared. The layer of snow now covering the road is over one metre deep so we weren't able to complete our job. So we are stuck here and we cannot work on other things until we solve this situation with the elderly woman," Buselic said.
    Heavy snowing which had left most of the area covered with a layer of snow 80 to 150 centimetres thick has largely stopped by Tuesday. However, gale-force winds started battering the region, which made many previously cleared roads inaccessible again. Due to road traffic disturbance two counties had declared state of emergency and authorities said on Monday morning that some three thousand people were still thought to be isolated in the most severely affected areas around the towns of Imotski and Vrgorac in the Dalmatian hinterland.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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