One Man’s Quick Thinking Saves Lives in a Winter Storm

A massive winter storm passed through the country in 2013, covering 67% of the U.S.. The country was covered in snow and ice!  While unfortunately many were left without heat and power, some tried to make the best of it.  But a quick jaunt through the snow can quickly turn into a survival situation if you’re not prepared.

You wanna go and ask for help but the storm will kill you before you could even find one.  That leads to the question – If you’re caught outside in the middle of winter, without supplies – How do you survive?

Man Saves Lives In A Winter Storm

One man’s quick thinking recently saved his family and turned what would have otherwise been a recovery mission into a successful rescue. So what did he do?

(CNN) — The 2006 silver Jeep Wrangler with a black top carried the excited family of six into the back country of northwestern Nevada for a playful weekend outing in the snow. Those moments of adventure dissolved into a fight for survival after the vehicle turned over, slid down an embankment on its top and ended up in a crevice 15 miles from Lovelock. When dawn broke Monday to a temperature of 21 below zero, the situation for James Glanton, 34, and his girlfriend, Christina McIntee, and four children could have been desperate.  Instead, they kept their heads. They didn’t try to walk out of danger, thereby making it easier for rescuers to find them.

Those rescuers did find them about midday Tuesday, nearly 48 hours after the ordeal began. And, within hours, an incredible story of resourcefulness and steady nerves began to trickle out.

Check out this video on how the missing family survived the freezing Nevada wilderness.

Here’s a look at the lucky survivors and the unfortunate event in the Northern Nevada mountains.

Overturned Jeep Wrangler

This is how it looked like when rescuers spotted the overturned jeep.  A search and rescue team was set out after the group failed to come back from a fun day trip in the snow.

Pershing General Hospital

The family consisting of two adults and four children was found and rushed to Pershing General Hospital after they were lost in the freezing Nevada mountains.  A miraculous story of survival for James Glanton and company.

The Survivors

Six days after they were rescued, the survivors with James Glanton(far right) were interviewed by Savannah Guthrie in Today.  They look perfectly okay after luckily surviving extreme cold temperatures.

Keeping warm

The couple, who were without extra blankets, started a fire outside after the Jeep overturned. They heated rocks and placed them in the spare tire to keep the children, ages 3 to 10, warm at night.

“I have never heard of such a thing, but I think it was pretty clever of him,” Paul Burke, who coordinated the rescue effort for the state Department of Public Safety, said of Glanton’s tactics.

“To the extent he was ingenious about it, that is one for the books,” Burke told CNN on Tuesday evening.

When three residents finally found the family and their vehicle during a massive search, the family had little food left, so resident Salvador Paredes pulled a candy bar from his pocket and shared it with them.

Glanton and McIntee, 25, along with their two children — Evan and Chloe — and McIntee’s niece and nephew, were taken to Pershing General Hospital.

This man’s ingenuity saved his family from a very serious situation, and that shouldn’t be taken away from him. But things could have been much different had he made sure his vehicle was properly stocked with cold weather emergency preps.  With the children and situation their in, this is one heck of a survival story for the ages.  Luckily the man in charge did not panic and used his superb survival skills to seal their survival.

Click here for a compilation of winter storm survival tips.

If you’re looking for useful survival gear that you can’t make at home, check out the Survival Life Store!

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on December 26, 2016, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.