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Kale Casey 1 hr ·

Please pray for our family as we have very devastating news and need a miracle. Mama Laura appears to have been caught by a historic avalanche while hiking down the hill from our backcountry house above Lake City and search and rescue is underway. Misty is alive and had been pacing between the house and the avalanche site for the past few days.

I pulled into Nome, Alaska this morning at 10:30am after 1,000 miles on snowmachine and went right from the dog yard to the airport. Tonight it’s Anchorage to Colorado. Jayme arranged all of my travel and we owe enormous gratitude to Ben and Luke for driving to Lake City to represent Mama and our family at the Hinsdale County Emergency Operations Center.

A small official search team from the Sheriffs office made the uphill journey across several slide paths to the house today and are assembling a larger team with avalanche professionals and scent dogs to resume the search as soon as it’s safe. Friends and volunteers not approved by the Sheriff are not allowed.

Mama is one of the most calm, centered and powerful women on this planet and if anyone can survive this awful tragedy she will. Your love and prayers matter to Mama and us all. Thank you to all of you who offered and will offer to help. This is a very tough situation and we need eachother more than ever. Mama would want us all to stay calm, stay safe, and be loving.

'It’s a miracle they’re not all gone’
Hinsdale County reeling from ‘historic’ avalanches
By Katharhynn Heidelberg katharhynnh@montrosepress.com Mar 14, 2019

Mandatory evacuations were put into effect Wednesday for parts of Hinsdale County, due to ever-worsening avalanche conditions.

The slides started slamming Lake City and other locations in the remote county on Tuesday. At about 6 that morning, an avalanche broke free above County Road 30, came down, and obliterated the home of Hinsdale County Sheriff Justin Casey as he and his two teenage daughters slept inside.

All three were injured and were on Wednesday morning being held for observation at Gunnison Valley Hospital, said Lynn McNitt, accounting manager for Hinsdale County.

One of the girls was more critically injured than her sister and father, but is expected to recover. “They’re all going to be OK,” McNitt said.

But the Casey home, its contents, vehicles and barn on the property are gone. “It just demolished everything,” said McNitt.

Other slides came down after the one that hit Casey’s home. About 11 people who live on Road 30 found themselves trapped behind the mass of snow as they tried to leave; they sheltered at a cabin in Child’s Park until search and rescue members could retrieve them via Sno Cat Tuesday night.

At about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, a smaller slide came down in Lake City Heights and took out the back wall of a home there; the occupants were reported as OK, McNitt said.

Hinsdale County also reported an evacuation mission for five families near County Road 30 on Wednesday morning.

County Roads 30 (the lake road) and 20 (Henson Creek Road) were closed as of Wednesday, and mandatory evacuations were in effect for those residents.

Those living in the Monte Queen area off Colorado 149 were also ordered to evacuate, because of a fracture in the snow above, which, if it breaks, will bring down another avalanche.

“We have feet of snow and it’s still coming down. It’s just dumping,” said McNitt, who has lived in Hinsdale County for 18 years. “We’ve never had evacuations before, not like this. And it keeps snowing.”

People under evacuation order, as well as those who aren’t, but wish to leave their homes voluntarily, can take shelter at the Lake City Armory. Updates are available at http://www.hinsdalecountycolorado.us and new slides can be reported to the county at 970-944-2225, ext. 1.

McNitt said the community has banded together to help each other, as well as the sheriff.

A Go Fund Me account set up for the Caseys had as of Wednesday evening raised about $45,000. (Visit gofundme.com and search “The Casey Family, Lake City, Colorado.”)

“They lost everything,” McNitt said. “It’s a miracle that they’re not all gone. … It (home) is buried.”

She was not immediately aware of whether a fund has been established to assist the Lake City Heights residents whose home was damaged in the Wednesday avalanche.

Lake City residents are opening their homes, offering beds and meals to those displaced. “It’s just amazing right now,” McNitt said.

Undersheriff Chris Kambish is taking care of law enforcement matters, along with the Colorado State Patrol. Hinsdale and Gunnison county emergency management members are working together, and a representative from the Department of Homeland Security is also helping, McNitt said.

Montrose County has previously offered assistance to Hinsdale County.

McNitt said more evacuations could be ordered if conditions demand it.

Hinsdale County’s emergency op priorities Wednesday included snow removal from against the windows of the Lake City school, continued slope assessment and controlling access to restricted areas.

Residents who are clearing their roofs need to use proper tools that allow them to stay off the roof, and should have at least two people for safety. The county reminds residents that a person was killed last week when snow came down from a roof near South Crested Butte.

Avalanche warnings remain in effect for the northern San Juans. Travel in or below avalanche terrain and steep slopes is to be avoided.

“Avalanches are impacting lower elevations and locations that have not seen avalanche activity in recent years,” the Colorado Avalanche Information Center advised. “A potent storm with wet, heavy snow and strong, shifting winds will keep avalanche conditions dangerous.”

The center said a “historic avalanche cycle” occurred Tuesday near Lake City and that conditions are very dangerous in much of the Gunnison zone, especially the areas from Taylor Park south to U.S. 50, including areas around Pitkin and Ohio City, in terms of historic-sized avalanches affecting valleys.

Red Mountain Pass on U.S. 550 is closed indefinitely because of avalanches and mitigation work, the Colorado Department of Transportation previously announced.

As of Wednesday morning, Coal Bank and Molas passes were also closed on the highway for mitigation. Colorado 145 was closed at Lizard Head Pass because of adverse weather and avalanche danger, with avalanche mitigation work to follow when conditions are safe enough.

Colorado 65, Grand Mesa, was closed at about noon Wednesday for avalanche mitigation work.

As many as 2 feet of snow could fall in the Southwest region, according to forecasts shared by CDOT, with the heaviest snow falling above 9,000 feet. Valleys could receive up to 3 inches.

Much of Colorado was storm-socked Wednesday. On the Front Range, multiple schools and public offices were closed and blizzard warnings were in effect on the plains.

High winds also were forecasted in the state, including the Southwest region.