Updated Fri. May. 9 2008 11:04 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff

A family of seven that spent six days lost in the Canadian Arctic survived by huddling inside a tent set up inside a makeshift igloo.
The family -- with five children under 12 -- was found safe Thursday, with the parents dragging a sled carrying their children.
None of the family members were injured in the ordeal.
They had been on a 250-kilometre trek, by snowmobile and sled, from Repulse Bay to Hall Beach, Nunavut when they took a wrong turn and got lost.
They had set out from Repulse Bay on May 1.
"We followed the tracks and we took a wrong turn," Merrill Siusangnark, the father, told CTV's Canada AM on Friday from Hall Beach.
"When I finally realized I didn't know the land that we were on, that we were in the wrong place, I tried to turn back to where I knew the land but my Ski-doo couldn't drag the komatik (sled)."
The family survived the frigid Arctic nights in a tent set up inside a makeshift, igloo huddled around a small stove with a dwindling supply of seal oil to burn, Siusangnark said.
During the day, the couple pulled the sled with the children inside, attempting to reach Hall Beach.
Meanwhile, ground crews began searching for the family on Sunday when they failed to arrive. It wasn't until Thursday that the weather lifted and a helicopter and airplane were able to join the search.
Bill Kennedy, a search co-ordinator in Repulse Bay, told The Canadian Press it was a group of Rangers -- mostly aboriginal military reservists -- who eventually found the family.
They followed a set of tracks that led to a burned-out snowmobile that the family appeared to have set on fire as a smoke signal to rescuers, CP reported. However, heavy cloud cover had made it impossible for rescuers to see the plume of smoke.
The Rangers found the family a short time after locating the snowmobile. They were near a river, fairly close to Hall Beach when they were found and had been heading in the right direction, according to a CP report.
They were transported to Hall Beach by helicopter, and everyone is now doing fine, Siusangnark said.

article courtesy of CTV.ca: Canadian Arctic Family found Safe

Snow Blankets Much Of Nebraska Panhandle
POSTED: 11:08 am CDT May 2, 2008


RUSHVILLE, Neb. -- Boys on snowmobiles rescued a rural Rushville woman who was stranded in the snow on her way to work.

Holly Landreth left for work about 4 a.m. Friday, as a spring storm caused near whiteout conditions in the Panhandle. She ended up in the middle of a field, not knowing where she was. Landreth used her cell phone to call for help, and local authorities and residents tried to find her from descriptions of her surroundings.

At about 9:30 a.m., two boys came upon her vehicle while snowmobiling, officials said.
Officials on Friday diverted traffic from several highways in the Nebraska Panhandle and west into Colorado because of blizzard-like conditions.

Interstate 80 was closed Friday morning from Sidney west into Wyoming. Wyoming closed several interstate stretches because of ice, snow and wind.

Colorado is rerouting Interstate 76 traffic onto U.S. Highway 138 at Julesburg.
In Nebraska, stalled vehicles are blocking U.S. 26 at Ogallala and Lewellen.
Schools across the Panhandle closed and officials are asked motorists to stay home.
The city of Chadron reported that 5 inches of heavy, wet snow fell overnight.
The weather service said the spring storm will strengthen over Nebraska and slowly move east.

article courtesy of: KETV Omaha

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (AP) — A dog was found alive and in relatively good shape after spending eight days trapped in the rubble of a building that exploded, critically injuring the pup's owner.

Lulu, a Springer spaniel, was rescued Sunday after the owner of the business that had been housed in the two-story building heard her whimpering.

"We turned off the radio and started calling out Lulu's name. Then we heard some yelping," Brian Hold, owner of Good Times Adventures, told the Summit Daily News in Tuesday's editions.

Lulu's owner, Brian Mislanski, had been critically injured in the April 19 explosion and remained at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver on Tuesday.

"I'm happy," Mislanski told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He declined to comment further, but friends who are caring for Lulu said they took her to visit him — with permission from the hospital.

Veterinarian Christine Murphy said Lulu suffered mild dehydration and had some trauma to her left eye. She probably survived by drinking melting snow and eating food she found in the debris, Murphy said.

Good Times Adventures is a snowmobiling and dogsledding business. Mislanski, a company van driver, was house-sitting for managers who lived in the upstairs apartment when the building exploded.

Hold said he was sorting through about 6,000 square feet of rubble from the explosion when he heard Lulu.

"After 45 minutes of frantic digging, we found her laying in a crawl space under 15 feet of rubble," he said. "She basically had a two-story building on top of her."

Fire officials initially said it could be a week or two before the cause of the explosion is known but they did not believe it was intentional or criminal. Fire officials did not immediately return a call Tuesday.

The hospital said it couldn't discuss Mislanski's injuries or condition.

article courtesy of: Associated Press