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Missoula avalanche going 120 mph when it hit house; hurt people ID'd
MISSOULA -- The avalanche that rocketed down the west face of Mount Jumbo on Friday
afternoon was probably going 120 mph when it obliterated Fred Allendorf and Michel Colville’s
house at the base of the hill.
An all-neighborhood rescue crew recovered the couple, and 8-year-old Phoenix Scholes-Coburn,
after hours of digging in the snow and debris. All three remained hospitalized Saturday.
A snowboarder likely triggered the slide near the summit of Jumbo, which was primed for trouble by
a mid-week warm spell followed by the first serious blizzard Missoula had experienced since 1997.
“All it was waiting for was a trigger, and we got that with the snowboarder,” said West-Central
Montana Avalanche Center director Steve Karkanen. “He was on a slab probably 2 or 3 feet deep.
It collapsed with a whoomp and he started to go for a ride. He got caught in it for a while, but got free."
afternoon was probably going 120 mph when it obliterated Fred Allendorf and Michel Colville’s
house at the base of the hill.
An all-neighborhood rescue crew recovered the couple, and 8-year-old Phoenix Scholes-Coburn,
after hours of digging in the snow and debris. All three remained hospitalized Saturday.
A snowboarder likely triggered the slide near the summit of Jumbo, which was primed for trouble by
a mid-week warm spell followed by the first serious blizzard Missoula had experienced since 1997.
“All it was waiting for was a trigger, and we got that with the snowboarder,” said West-Central
Montana Avalanche Center director Steve Karkanen. “He was on a slab probably 2 or 3 feet deep.
It collapsed with a whoomp and he started to go for a ride. He got caught in it for a while, but got free."
http://mtstandard.com/news/local/missoula-avalanche-going-mph-when-it-hit-house-hurt-people/article_416dea22-a113-11e3-bf51-0019bb2963f4.html
