
It was supposed to be a fun family vacation for a father, a mother, and their 5-year-old daughter from League City. But they ran into serious trouble just outside of Clayton, New Mexico. A snowstorm left them stranded for days and at times, wondering if anyone would find them alive.
The Higgins family is safe now and thankful to be alive. They are eternally grateful to the team of rescuers who never lost hope. They say their rescue was nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
The trip for Yvonne, David and little Hannah Higgins the skiing getaway at Angel Fire in New Mexico started out like any other -- until they got caught in a blinding blizzard outside the town of Clayton.
"We got about 30 miles down the road and all of a sudden you couldn't see the road; you couldn't see in front of you," David Higgins told us over the phone.
They had checked road conditions. Difficult driving was reported but the road was still open. They followed a snowplow for a while, but visibility dropped to zero.
"It was white. You couldn't even see the yellow line," David said.
It was getting so bad that he had slowed to about 5 mph.
"You're thinking there are these people from Colorado and New Mexico behind us going, `Those Texas drivers, they don't know how to drive in this snow,"' he said. "Then I'm thinking to myself, `How can they drive in this?' You can't even see."
Despite having snow tires on their SUV, the snow stopped the family in their tracks. David Higgins tried backing up and then driving forward again. He made some progress but then the back end slipped around and the vehicle started to slide down an embankment.
He was able to keep the car running for a couple of hours, but when he went to get out to clear the exhaust pipe, his door was blocked.
Early on, the family could hear vehicles passing, so they tried honking the horn. That didn't work.
The Higginses had their ski gear, plenty of water to drink, sandwiches, chips and Chex mix. But as the hours passed, it seems as if they were working harder to breathe inside the buried SUV.
"We weren't sure of it, but we think we were running out of air. That was spooky," he said.
They didn't just get stuck -- the Higgins became prisoners in their SUV, trapped and eventually buried under four feet of snow with no way out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.
"By eight o'clock that night the snow was above the roof of the vehicle. I opened the window and I couldn't even push the snow out of the way," Higgins told us.
But the family of three was well stocked with supplies. For almost two days, the Higgins would survive on sandwiches and bottled water and when nature called, they improvised.
"When you had to go, you went, you know; you used the water bottles," said Higgins.
Now encased in what Higgins described as a tomb of snow, the Higgins were desperate for someone to find them. They knew it was a race against time.
"We were short of breath and we didn't realize it at the time we were actually running out of air," Higgins said.
Higgins was able to reach his brother in Texas by cellphone and let him know the family's general location. The distress call was relayed to state police, which launched a search for the family Tuesday evening.
The National Guard was called out, along with state transportation workers. State highway trucks with plows and rescuers in four-wheel-drive vehicles pushed through heavy snow and drifts as high as 10 feet as teams probed the snow looking for the family's SUV.
One of the rescuers hit the hood, and the digging started.
Nearly 40 hours after their ordeal began, help finally arrived. A team of rescuers dug their way down and pulled the Higgins to safety.
"It was straight out of the window; it was out the window and up like out of rabbit hole," said Higgins.
The Higginses were among 32 vehicles state police and guardsmen rescued from the storm, but they were the only ones who police say needed medical attention.
"Tired and whooped" is how Higgins described his family after their ordeal.
Back in Houston, Yvonne Higgins' mother was relieved to hear they'd been saved.
"God answered our prayer. He answered prayer and I am just so grateful. I'm so grateful," said Marie Holmes.
Playing games on their cellphones and watching movies on his daughter's travel DVD player helped pass the time, but Higgins admits the thought of not making it out alive started to cross his mind after a day of being buried.
"We didn't realize how deep the snow was," he said.
Higgins had a simple message for travelers this winter: Throw a case of water and a sleeping bag in the car.
"It will be there if you need it," he said. "I could see if we weren't half as prepared as we were, it could have been a worse outcome."
Yvonne Higgins is recovering in the hospital. Her husband and daughter were released. They hope to make it home to the Houston area as soon as they can, perhaps in time for Christmas.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »santa fe, new mexico, local
No comments:
Post a Comment