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SATURDAY February 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 31, 2003 Life continues after snow By Tim Bousquet Tidings Correspondent The man who died while trapped with hundreds of other motorists atop Siskiyou pass Monday has been identified as George Alfred Engelhardt of Florence. He was 72 and died of an apparent cardiac arrest, said Bill Floyd, a senior trooper with the state police. Fresh snow Tuesday on the Siskiyou Summit provides a thrilling sled ride for siblings Ashley and Levi Anderson. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings "He was stuck there with his wife," said Floyd. "I last checked in on them at two in the morning, and they were okay. He had a heart attack at about eight o'clock. It just so happened that someone in the next car was an EMT, and he gave CPR, but they couldn't save him." Floyd believes the conditions contributed to Engelhardt's death. "There's only so much you can do. We brought water and fuel to people, but there are no toilet facilities. Sitting in your car for 20 hours, it's a stressful situation." Those trapped on the hill tended to stay alone in their vehicles, and there wasn't much socializing or sharing of resources. "I guess that's what kind of society we are," commented Floyd. Life at the shelter For the duration of the road closure southbound Greyhound buses deposited passengers, but not their luggage, at an emergency shelter set up by the Red Cross at the Southern Oregon University gym. They were joined by only a handful of people retrieved from their cars on the pass, who were reconnected with their cars when the cars were towed to the ODOT yard on Tolman Creek Road. On Sunday night, 244 people stayed at the shelter, said Buck Jolley, a Red Cross volunteer. Many found hotel rooms or made other arrangements, and by Monday night the shelter held 160 people. The Red Cross collected donations from local restaurants and grocery stores, and Access Inc., a nonprofit food rescue program, delivered box meals. Cots and mats were set up in the gym, the dance studio and the wrestling room. Anita Brown was returning by Greyhound to Riverside, Calif., from an annual visit to her granddaughter in Seattle. The bus dropped her off at the shelter at 1:30 a.m. Monday. "The volunteers have been wonderful," she said. "They've been very hospitable, and there hasn't really been any problems. This is less of an inconvenience than I thought it would be." Brown noted that five infants were among those housed in the shelter. "People get along OK. We watched TVs, and the SOU women's basketball team played last night. There haven't been any fights, and not many problems. One guy brought in some beer and they told him he couldn't stay here." Most of the shelter residents didn't have much in the way of financial resources, noted Brown. "Those who could afford it got hotel rooms. A few were able to go to restaurants, but most of us just stayed and ate here. We had soup and chili, baloney sandwiches, lots of fruit, coffee. I haven't had a baloney sandwich in 20 years." Around 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jolley announced to the group that the Greyhound buses would arrive in half an hour. But the company mistakenly sent empty buses, and not the four buses that still contained the passengers' luggage. The correct buses didn't arrive until about 10:30. The passengers loaded for their continued trip, and the Red Cross volunteers began packing up, their mission accomplished. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: The new search is here! Click here for more information. .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams