Tuktoyaktuk (Mar 24/03) - Three residents fought through a blinding winter storm March 11 to save nine people stranded in their vehicles on the Tuktoyaktuk ice road.

Eric Ettagiak, Peter Anikina and Opi Anikina have become the hamlet's latest heroes.

The trio rescued seven Tuktoyaktuk residents and two Inuvik residents who became trapped on the road when brutal 80 km/h winds and a heavy snowstorm hit the Mackenzie Delta.

Unaware of the storm that was about to strike, nine people in three vehicles departed Inuvik on March 10.

When the blizzard hit, the three vehicles became stranded about 15 kilometres past Swimming Point. Visibility had reduced to zero and they were still 70 kilometres from their destination.

About 17 hours later -- just before 3 p.m. March 11 -- friends and family members of the missing travellers contacted the RCMP.

"We couldn't get a hold of them all day Monday so that's when we figured they had started back to Tuk," said Opi Anikina, referring to his brother, common-law wife and nephew.

One RCMP member was available to head out on a search.

That's when Opi and his two cousins, Peter Anikina and Eric Ettagiak, decided they had to help out.

"The storm was pretty bad and we couldn't leave them out there another day," said Anikina. "Their vehicles were running out of gas and we were afraid they would get exhaust poisoning."

The group got together to discuss their search and rescue plans. After stocking up on blankets, food, tea and gasoline, they piled the gear onto snowmobiles and sleds and headed into the blinding storm.

"It was really poor visibility. There were snow drifts everywhere on the road and we could hardly see each other at all," said Opi.

Four hours later the rescue team finally located their missing relatives and friends.

"They were happy to see us. My brother knew that we would come, but their hopes were down for a while," said Opi.

The rescue team arrived just in time. The vehicles were almost completely buried in snow.

"They had to be shovelled out. My brother had to get out of his back window and shovel the doors to let the other guys out," said Opi. "We just reached them in time."

The rescue team piled all nine people into sleighs and brought them to the Swimming Point camp to warm up.

The following day, three Petro-Canada camp employees transferred three of the stranded motorists to Tuk in a Twin Otter while the others opted to travel by sleigh.

The search and rescue operation wrapped up 24 hours after it commenced. The vehicles were recovered two days later when the storm finally subsided.

Sgt. Joe Laughlin of the Tuktoyaktuk RCMP commended the three civilians who risked their own well-being to save their friends and family. "It's always heart-warming to see people that will go out of their way to help other people," he said.

Laughlin is submitting an article on the heroic rescue to the RCMP quarterly newsletter, which is circulated nationally.