HUNDREDS of motorists were rescued from Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, last night after being trapped in their vehicles in heavy snow.
About 500 vehicles, including coaches, were stuck on the A30 between Kennards House and Bodmin near to Jamaica Inn after a lorry overturned at about midday.
Police used 4x4 vehicles to rescue people and the RAF and the Navy sent helicopters carrying blankets.
Among those stranded were an 80-year-old woman and a mother with a one-month-old child. One woman was airlifted to hospital from Bodmin Parkway railway station because ambulances could not reach her.
About 500 rescued people were expected to spend the night sleeping on mats at a leisure centre in Bodmin.
Inspector Steve Whitney, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “It will take the weekend before everything gets back to normal. People have abandoned cars in the middle of roads.” The eastbound carriageway has reopened, but the westbound lanes remain closed.
Remember the ridicule then-mayor Mel Lastman received for calling in the army a few years back to dig Toronto out of three feet of snow? He violated the unspoken, unwritten law of Canada: winter storms are a fact of life, so shut up and dig yourself out.
I would tell the Brits the same, except for the fact that the Gulf Stream keeps them from having real winters, so they've never really needed snowplows, winter tires or central heating.
In any event, this will no doubt be blamed on global warming, the wonderful hypothesis that can never be disproven and can explain everything from August heatwaves to February blizzards and why tornadoes always seem to hit trailer parks the hardest.
Source: The Times Online
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