_ TWO MONTANA hunters = Lloyd Rice and Roger Licht — were at the right place at the “ight time on Aug. 27 to find themselves in position to help find victims of an extremely dangerous mud slide at Legate Creek. The pair didn't even turn off their. truck —

they just jumped out and

_ dove into the muddy deluge. They’ re now among several people on the scene being recommended for “bravery awards.

0

Risk and rewar

S MANY as nine people may get citations of bravery for their daring f - MA last-second | rescue of. : Victims of last August's mudslide? near Legate Creek. _ Several eyewitnesses. on th , scene and local emergency crews ; were hailed as heroes for risking their lives amid the roaring wind and rain and a rising river of mud two metres deep and as thick as setting concrete, Their actions saved three area

fe]

ra

> -residents- who were driving home -

* through a torrential downpour Aug. 27 when a wall of mud, trees and

« rock collapsed onto Highway | 16, — trapping their car. a “Definitely, there will be some , awards coming out of this,” Terrace

RCMP Sgt. Scott Lovell said. He’s spent months tracking down the 15 to 20 eyewitnesses for inter- views,

“it Some Were cooperative others int. ~-reluctant‘to discuss: their- role ‘in the: Abe

dangerous, difficult rescuc.

Not everyone wants to be labelled a hero, it seems, and that made it complicated to piece together.

: “This was a very confusing set of circumstances,” Lovell said. “You had contradicting eyewitness ac- counts of what happened — I’m sure, because of the adrenaline level, and because of all the players involved.”

Lovell conducted some inter-

views himself, others with the aid of |

police in other jurisdictions. « _ Now familiar with the details of “~ the rescue, Lovell says the accident has left a deep impression on all in- volved. : .

“A lot of them were cmotionally | touched by this,” he said. , _ About half the rescuers” recom- _#«. mended for bravery citations are -, from the Terrace area.

The rest are from out-of-town, including the two mystery men from ‘Montana — hunters Lloyd Rice and

Rescuers who braved a mud slide last year may soon be honoured for their actions

A special repo by Jennifer ,

ALLEN JONES, Trouble, who also survived, and Jenny Parnell.

Roger Licht — who led Terrace fire- fighters and search and rescue crews to slide victim Michael Williams. The three survivors, Williams, Jenny Parnell and driver Allen Jones, don’t have any clear memory.of the strangers who came to their aid. “They don’t know who the peo- ple are,” Lovell said. “They remem-

ber the hands dragging them out of. the mud and pulling them onto the

highway and putting them on the ambulance. That's about all.”

RCMP Staff/Sgt. Jas Basi hailed the rescuers, including the Terrace fire department and search and res- cuc, along with the two Americans, as “true heroes” who saved Wil- liams’ life seconds before another slide hit.

Definitely there. will be some awards coming ‘out of this.”

Laan

vee ORR wwe wo we em.

eadlights flashing — in warning through the rain ahead.

That's all the alert driver Allen

Jones, Jenny Parnell and Michael Williams got before their car be- came stuck in mud already flowing onto the highway.

When Parnell and Williams got

out to push, the mountainside let

loose again. , The slide struck with devastating

speed, sending the car hurtling over

‘Williams and burying them all

mud and debris. Roger Licht of Sanford, Mon-

tana, and his hunting partner Lloyd

Rice of Havre, were driving west along Hwy [6 when they saw the slide come down.

When, they stopped they could hear the screams of the trapped mo- lorists.

“They said they left the motor

running and they didn’t even think,” Rice's wife Lisa told the Havre Dai- ly News back in September,

The (vo men were up to their knees in mud when they took their first step.

By the time they took their sec- ond step, the mud was up to their Waits, .

ONE MINUTE it was a rainy stretch of highway with a bit of mud on it. The next moment a wall of debris had come down and slammed this car into the woods. Michael Williams, who had gotten out of the ve- hicle to push, found himself trapped downstream, buried up to his neck.

Pe ee a ee ee ee ee

a

ay

“Am I stupid for doing this? Rice wondered. They kept going, even though it felt like walking in concrete: -_

The Americans first found trapped driver Allen Jones —and only barely.

_ The 70-year-old man was buried so deep under mud and debris he was easy to miss, they recalled later.

Jones, whose legs were pinned under, a log; remembers hearing somcone say, “I got one here!” °

“They had to more or less dig me out with their hands,” he recalled _ last week.

The Americans helped him es- cape while a paramedic in an am- bulance returning: to Terrace helped ~ Jenny Parnell,

. Meanwhile firefighters and search and rescue crews from Terrace ar-

rived on the west side of the slide but

couldn’t see Michael Williams. The Montana hunters then popped

«, out of the bush .and led:the rescue - teams.on a.crawl through three-me- ~

tre-deep:mud to where Williams was pinned, deep in a log jam, encased in mud up to his neck.

It took more than one hour, but they eventually pried him out, using sticks and chainsaws.

The rescuers set up a relay system 10 pull the 47-year-old Thornhill man across - the mud in a bas- ket stretcher.

Seconds after he reached safe- ty, there was another, thun- dering © slide pouring down the hill.

“I would have been buried,” Wil- liams told The Terrace Stan- dard following his ordeal. “I. would have been gone for sure.”

_Amazingly, he and his friends és- caped with no broken bones. ‘

Michael | 7 Williams °

“hen the (wo Montana hunters returned — to their still-idling truck, they changed clothes, asked direc- tions and bypassed the slide via Hwy 37 and the Cranberry Connector on their way to the ferry terminal at Prince Rupert. At first, no one knew who the mystery men were. But after five months of inves-

tigating,’ Lovell has compiled a 75-

page report he’s just submitted to the RCMP awards committee.

Possible ‘citations includo the RCMP’s own commissioner's com- mendation for various provincial

and federal government ‘awards for

bravery.

The committee considers such recommendations at least four times. a year.

“It all goes in front of the board.” Lovell said. “The board determines, based on the recommendation of the OIC of the detachment, what would be appropriate.”

He’s confident those who risked their lives will be recognized.

So are the survivors.

“I think they should,” Jenny Par- nell, a grandmother of six. said last week.

She and Williams were able to speak to the Americans by telephone after the accident to express their thanks.

“We'd be dead.” Jones said. “I know it. Because the second one came down just after they got us out.”

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - AS ra |

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

The Mail Bag

Stuck in the past Dear Sir: I feel bad about taking a shot at Les “The Sky. is Fall-

ing” Watmough in regards to his Feb. 9, 2005 submission

regarding the history of Skeena Cellulose/New Skeena forest Products.

But news flash, Les. The sky fell years ago when Skeena went bankrupt and the NDP interfered with the natural evolution of business. Les truly represents what we don’t want to be, stuck in the past with the NDP.

Things in the:North are very difficult. We all-agree with you, Les. Is there really one political party to blame?

There are two ways you can write a cheque, “with mon- ey in the bank or with no money in the bank. The NDP wrote 10 years of bad cheques so health care, education and the social programs that they so/proudly funded were doomed with no economy to sustain them.

‘So Fask you, who did the damage the party ‘that wa in denial. or the party that had to face reality? [H took ten

years to make the mess and three tough years of sacrifice

to clean it up. B.C. is now in a position to write cheques

with money in the bank and has a strong vibrant economy *

to keep the account full. Sustainable long term funding for all of the provincial services is now available for the. first time.

The challenges we face are many. The forest industry in the, northwest is in a holding pattern; there is no denying that. Phe Skeena drama will soon be over and the industry

will stabilize one way er another. The provincial changes

to forest licences have not had a chance to develop and

in some cases have caused hardship, but every plan has °

growing pains and we need to grow with them. * Until new opportunities emerge from forestry, we need lo ‘support what we, can count on to build and sustain the

-northwest. We need to support businesses like the Prince

Rupert container port and Alcan, one of the most impor- tant and under appreciated companies in our region. Alcan, with our support, has the ability to modernize and develop secondary industries that could create even more long term jobs than they do now.’ If there is one thing we don’t need, it is more uncertainty. Stand behind Alcan. They helped us build the northwest and they will

help us rebuild it if we support them. Now more*than ever | we need to unite our three cities, as one northern commu--

nity and move towards the future together. The northwest is waiting in the back of the line behind

- the many provincial success stories. This is tough. Does this mean we give up? Does this mean we give up our -

place in line after three years of hard work? I say. we push our way to the front. Support Roger Harris our Lib- cral MLA and help him lead us there.’ We are going to be

_the next provincial success story. Don’t give up our place ‘in line. Our turn is coming. The northwest will be back

stronger and better than ever. Peter Weeber Jr, Terrace, B.C.

Kneejerk reactions

Dear Sir: The replies to Dr. David Heinimann’s letter in the Feb. 9, 2005 issue of The Terrace Standard have demonstrated ihat “disrespect for’ culture’ differences are’ ‘Know! to’ both natives and non-natives. rere) ‘While the totem raising at Northwest Community ‘Col- lege last November was indeed a landmark occasion and a beginning for the collaboration of northwest First Nations in education, I-cannot help but question why these letter writers would deny the history of technological change as

~ it has evolved through education, invention and innova-

‘tion. 3 The fact that the totem might still be standing 100 years from now, thanks to the concrete and steel, would send a positive message of unity among all the cultures of the northwest. This would certainly be something worth celebrating

instead of simply ‘discounting Dr. Heinimann’s thoughts ~

as merely the fancy of some post-colonialist thinker.”

The kneejerk reaction to Dr. Heinimann’s letter cer- tainly shows there is no shortage of folks willing to jump on the bandwagon and condemn something | because it docsn’t fit the “profile”.

Don’t touch the pool

Dear Sir:. ,

Having read an article in The Terrace Standard about possible options for city budget cuts, I am’ responding against any closures of the pool.

Although I understand the dilemma of budget restraints

and the need to tighten the belt, I believe that in times —

of stress — and certainly our community has been under stress — that recreational facilities are even more important to comm unity members,’

Our pool is aunique recreational facility in that it cov-.

ers the needs of a diverse number of people. Itis a facility that is used by both young and old, able and disabled, and tich and poor.

It is used by people of different cultural back grounds and different physical activity as water is a very forgiv- ing medium and allows movement which other wise is ac-

‘companied by pain and stress.

The pool really is a “community” facility. We of Terrace are lucky to have such a wonderful ac- cess to this facility, and I for one would be disadvantaged

if it hours of operation were to be reduced.

Please, please do not change our access to the pool. Bonnie Shaw, Terrace, B.C.

Bantams praised

An open letter to:

Terrace Bantam Hockey .

Dear Coaches and Parents:

Your team stayed with us on January 28.and 29, 2005. Your team was a very pleasant change from the hockey teams we have dealt with in the past. We truly enjoyed having your team stay with us. We admire the values and

‘structure that you are giving these boys.

Thank-you, again, for staying with us. We hope that you will stay with us again in the future.

Hillview Motel,

Vanderhoof, B.C.

About the Mail Bag

The Terrace Standard welcomes letters. Our address is 3210 Clinton St.. Terrace, B.C. V8G 5R2. You can fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mail us at newsroom @terracestandard.com. No attachments, please. Namie, address and phone number required for verification.

Allan Mcintyre, Terrace, B. Cc. ,