A family with two young children who collapsed with hypothermia were rescued in the forest overnight Thursday after trying to cross the border into Quebec between the U.S. and Canada.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said they received a call at 3:15 a.m. from Quebec provincial police alerting them that two adults and a one and two-year-old located around Havelock, Que., needed urgent rescue from the woods after walking for hours overnight and getting lost.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) had received a 911 call shortly before from the mother.
RCMP spokesperson Martina Pillarova told Motorcycle accident toronto today that emergency services were able to locate the family by keeping them on the 911 call and tracking their coordinates via GPS.
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“They stayed on the line while we tracked them. They were in an area with lots of trees, so no vehicle or skidoo could pass through. Officers got to them by 4:15 a.m. by foot by following their footsteps in the snow,” said Pillarova.
Authorities say the family was found under a tree. The parents had lost their shoes in a river, and the infant and toddler were not properly dressed for cold, harsh Canadian winter weather.
The two adults, whose ages the RCMP could not confirm, had collapsed and were holding the two children. They were unable to move and had hypothermia, the RCMP said.
The mother was transported out of the woods by sleigh, both children were carried by officers and the father managed to get on to a side-by-side vehicle that was able to get to them.
Emergency services from nearby towns Hemmingford, Que., and Mooers in upstate New York were waiting for them a kilometre away.
They were transported to hospital in Châteauguay, Que., to be treated for hypothermia and are expected to recover.
Pillarova said the family will likely ask for refugee status and their case will be transferred to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). She could not provide any further detail on their origins.