Blizzard Strands Chilean Soldiers

Five Chilean soldiers froze to death and 65 were missing after a fierce snowstorm pounded the Andes mountains, and continued bad weather Thursday hampered rescue efforts, the army said.

Thirty soldiers were found alive Thursday, army spokesman Col. Carlos Mezano said.

Angry relatives complained that the troops, mostly young draftees, had been sent into difficult circumstances without adequate training.

The group was returning from a mountain drill Wednesday in the Los Barros region, about 300 miles southeast of Santiago, when the storm hit, Gen. Emilio Cheyre said. Visibility was reduced to near zero as several feet of snow fell.

Cheyre acknowledged the failure to anticipate the bad weather but said troops had the training and equipment to deal with such emergencies.

The army sent mountain patrols with air support to search for the missing soldiers, but planes and helicopters were grounded by the bad weather. Army trucks and ambulances also had to wait while heavy machinery cleared the snow blocking most roads.

Relatives gathered at the regiment headquarters in Los Angeles, the nearest city, shouting at military officials and demanding to know the names of the missing.

Regional army commander Gen. Rodolfo Gonzalez told the relatives that he considered the soldiers “isolated, not lost.”

“Believe me, this is all I know,” he said before joining prayers for the soldiers in the gymnasium.