The Curry County Sheriff’s Office received a request for assistance from the Del Norte County Sheriff`s Office Wednesday, March 8th, requesting the use of the SnoCat to locate and assist a 70 year old female that had been stranded inside of her remote home due to heavy snow since February 21st.
The stranded elderly woman advised that although she did have a Jeep, the snow had become too deep for her to move it, and that she had run out of food. She also said that her wood stove was not functioning properly, and was only heating her residence to approximately 40 degrees.
At about 1:00pm, two Curry County Sheriff`s Deputies, arrived in the area of Rowdy Creek with the SnoCat, and began the approximate 6 to 8 mile trek to locate the female. After traveling several hours in approximately 4-6 feet of powder type snow, Curry County Deputies, and two Del Norte County Search and Rescue members were able to reach 70 year old Jeannie Morrison and her dog Willow, at her remote wilderness cabin.
After navigating the SnoCat in extremely tight quarters on the narrow wilderness road, with a steep cliff on one side and sheer rock on the other, and then backing the SnoCat out of the location for approximately 1 mile, Jeannie Morrison and her dog Willow were brought out safely to Del Norte County Deputies at approximately 4:30pm, and given a ride into town to get a motel room.
Morrison advised that she was out of food for herself and for her dog and that she was not prepared for this type of weather and deep snow. At this time Del Norte County Sheriff advised Curry County Deputies that there were several other residents off in another direction of Rowdy Creek that needed to be rescued and at or about 4:45pm the SnoCat again was used to access and locate 31 year old Chris Zelkovich, and 62 year old Anthony Williams, and their four dogs. Zelkovich and Williams were also running low on supplies, and needed to be extracted before the next weather event struck the area. The four dogs and two subjects were loaded up into the SnoCat and taken out to safety.
While extracting Zelkovich and Williams the SnoCat was also able to assist two other residents, Patti and Tom Beesler in the same area, by dropping off needed medications. The Beeslers advised that they had plenty of supplies for the remote home but did not have a way to access their medications.
