A family of four, including two children aged one and two, was rescued by the RCMP overnight Thursday after crossing the American border into Canada and becoming lost in the woods in Havelock, Que.
RCMP Cpl. Martina Pillarova said the four were suffering from severe hypothermia when they were found.
“They were in a very bad state,” she said. “They were not able to move anymore. They were frozen.”
Pillarova said the family possibly became lost in the woods after crossing the border and had been walking for hours before the mother called 911.
“It was the [Sûreté du Québec] who received a call and they called us for assistance at around 3:15 in the morning,” Pillarova said.
That call, she explained, allowed police to get GPS co-ordinates of their approximate location and narrow down the search area.
They were located within an hour in the forest, sitting huddled beneath a tree and unable to move.
The parents were found barefoot, having lost their boots in some sort of body of water, according to Pillarova, and the children were not dressed for winter weather.
“The children were dressed only in shoes and sneakers, no hats, no gloves. So they were in a bad, bad condition,” she said.
The family members were transported out of the woods to a waiting ambulance, with the mother carried on a sled, the two young children in the arms of officers and the father being rescued a short time later.
Pillarova said the ambulance was waiting roughly one kilometre away from the rescue site, on Covey Hill Road in Havelock.
The Sûreté du Québec and local firefighters assisted in the rescue operation.
As of Friday afternoon, Pillarova reported that all four family members remained in hospital and were in stable condition.
The RCMP confirmed the family asked for refugee status and the Canadian Border Services Agency are now in charge of the file.
After announcing a $1.3B plan to increase security on the U.S. border, Canadian officials offered an idea of how that money could be spent.
