Blizzard family buried for two days

A family pulled from a sport utility vehicle that had been buried in a snowdrift for nearly two days said they feared they would not make it out alive.

State police said rescuers had to dig through 4ft of ice and snow to free the Higgins family, whose red GMC Yukon got stuck on the rural highway in New Mexico when a blizzard moved through the area on Monday.

Rescuers found David and Yvonne Higgins, from Texas, and their five-year-old daughter Hannah clinging to each other and lethargic early yesterday morning. The family is recovering at Miners Colfax Medical Centre in Raton.

Mr Higgins, 48, said he and his wife both had pneumonia but his daughter was fine. He said he was glad to be able to talk about his ordeal because he had feared that he and his family might not be found.

"By nine or 10 Monday night, I realised there was solid snow outside my window. I tried to shove my arm through the top of the window. I thought, 'It can't be that deep'," he said.

"I pushed as hard as I could. My arm went about 16 inches and there was still snow."

The family, who had left their home on Sunday for a ski trip, started to hit bad weather soon after they crossed into New Mexico.

They followed a snow plough for a while, but visibility dropped to zero.

"It was white. You couldn't even see the yellow line," Mr Higgins said.

It was getting so bad that Mr Higgens had slowed to about 5mph. But despite having snow tyres, the blizzard stopped the family in its tracks. Mr Higgins tried backing up and then driving forward again and made some progress, but then the SUV's 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, but to no avail.

The family had ski gear, plenty of water, sandwiches, and snacks, but as the hours passed, it seemed 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," Mr Higgens said.

Playing games on their mobile phones and watching films on his daughter's travel DVD player helped pass the time, but Mr Higgins said the thought of not surviving started to cross his mind after a day of being buried.

"We didn't realise how deep the snow was," he said.

State police received a distress call and launched a search for the family on Tuesday evening. It was unclear where the call came from.

The National Guard was called out along with state transportation workers. State highway trucks with ploughs 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.

Then one of the rescuers hit the hood, and the digging started.

Mr Higgins said rescuers had to break the window to get to him and his family.

"They pulled us up and out of it," he said. "The rescuer took pictures and it looked like a rabbit hole. We were 3-4ft above the vehicle."

The Higgins family was among 32 vehicles state police and guardsmen rescued from the storm, but they were the only ones who police say needed medical attention.

:: An Arizona State University student last seen 10 days ago has been found alive in a remote area.

Sheriff's spokesman Gerry Blair said 23-year-old Lauren Weinberg was discovered snowbound in her vehicle just before noon yesterday in south-eastern Coconino County.

Mr Blair says she was cold, wet, and hungry but ecstatic to be found.

US Forest Service workers checking on gates in the area by snowmobile came across Ms Weinberg, who was taken to the Flagstaff Medical Centre.

The Arizona Daily Sun said she had driven south from Winslow to the Mogollon Rim when heavy snow prevented her from getting out. It was unclear how long she had been stuck in her vehicle.

Ms Weinberg had last been seen leaving her mother's home in south Phoenix.