Maine Hikers Stranded by Snow Are Rescued

BACHELDER’S GRANT, Maine -- Three groups of hikers stranded during the season’s first snowstorm were found safe and in good health Monday.

Ten students from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School’s Wilderness Club and two chaperons were ferried by snowmobile from an area near the state’s western border with New Hampshire, said spokesman Mark Latti of the Maine Warden Service.

“We got them all out and they’re all on their way back,” Latti said. School officials said none of the hikers needed to be hospitalized.

Earlier Monday, three Unity College students who became stranded while camping on Tumbledown Mountain near Weld, also in western Maine, turned up safe when wardens found them in their car, Latti said. They had been gone since Saturday.

A warden had used a snowmobile Monday to search the trail used by the students, who were well-equipped for overnight winter camping. The three were in good condition when found.

Also, state officials said two campers who had been out since Thursday and had become stranded in Grafton Township, unable to hike through deep snow, were located Monday by game wardens and airlifted out.

Parts of western Maine were covered by more than 30 inches of snow. Temperatures dipped to 8 degrees Friday night, 10 Saturday night and 19 Sunday night, weather officials said. A harsh wind created blizzard conditions late Saturday.

Meanwhile, with schools closed and the skies sunny, children around the Northeast frolicked in the snow Monday as grown-ups labored to dig out their entombed cars, clear sidewalks and slog their way to work.

Arcadio Francisco, 32, of Boston, said he was unable to get to his job as an electrician because the street where he parked his car was still under 2 feet of snow. Kids, however, were enjoying the pileup.

“They’re standing on top of the cars and jumping into the snow,” Francisco said.

The storm that blustered up the Eastern Seaboard over the weekend was moving out into the Atlantic Monday.

Rain and higher temperatures forecast for later this week are expected to speed the melting, and officials warned of flooding and the potential for roof collapses.