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By David Fox
SALANG PASS, Afghanistan, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Dozens of survivors of a
deadly avalanche in Afghanistan, at the world's highest road tunnel,
staggered out of a blizzard on Thursday to tell of a night of frozen horror.
They trudged through waist-high snowdrifts near the Salang Pass, around
160 kms (90 miles) north of the capital, rather than spend another night
watching fellow travellers freeze to death.
A blizzard that reduced visibility to no more than a few metres (yards),
and temperatures that plunged to minus 30 Celsius (22 Fahrenheit), brought
rescue attempts to a standstill.
Bulldozers froze in their tracks and truck tyres were coated in ice just
minutes after being stopped by huge drifts that blocked the way to the
tunnel.
The commanders of two tanks parked nearby tried in vain to light fires
beneath their vehicles to defrost the frozen engines.
Internet meteorology sites predicted more bad weather until at least
Friday afternoon.
"It's the worst I've seen in 15 years of driving the road," said lorry
driver Nazimullah, who spent nearly 24 hours stuck just outside the tunnel
before abandoning his vehicle and walking out.
"I have never seen anything like this, I don't know what I can do," he
told Reuters about five kms (three miles) from the tunnel entrance.
He was followed by a few more haggard survivors -- beards frozen and
mucous from their eyes, noses and mouths hanging in icicles.
DEATH BY ASPHYXIATION
An aid group helping to renovate the Soviet-built Salang Tunnel -- the
world's highest at 3,363 metres (11,034 ft) and only re-opened last month
after being closed for years by conflict -- said three people had died
overnight in the tunnel through asphyxiation.
They had left their cars running to try to keep out the cold, but
suffocated through carbon monoxide poisoning from the fumes that warmed them
into a careless slumber.
Tales from outside the tunnel were more harrowing.
Drifts of snow blocked the southern entrance on Wednesday afternoon,
trapping dozens of vehicles inside and even more out.
More cars were trapped as a blizzard closed in, and as night fell, those
stranded were left with a tough decision: sit it out; or walk for help.
Dozens of people made it to nearby hamlets, where locals gave them food
and shelter. But many may have perished trying to escape.
"I saw a boy of around 10 years who had frozen to death," said one truck
driver who staggered out of the blizzard. "There were other deaths as well."
"We left about 20 there," said another exhausted traveller. "They are
gone".
LIFELINE ROUTE
The road to the Salang Pass -- the lifeline linking the capital to the
north -- is littered with the rusting hulks of vehicles that have met their
end on its treacherous, icy slopes.
Dozens of Soviet tanks and armoured personnel carriers lie in ruins in
the steep ravines and gorges that line the route -- their cannibalised
skeletons advertising the perfection of the road as an ambush site.
Hundreds of Soviet soldiers died in battles along the road during
Moscow's decade-long occupation of Afghanistan when they fought against the
Mujahideen.
The former Taliban regime's grip on the country also went only as far as
Salang. The Northern Alliance, which swept them from power in November with
the help of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, controlled territory to the
north.
On Thursday the continuing bad weather drove even a U.S. Chinook
military helicopter from the area after a brief overpass to assess the
damage.
With visibility down to a few metres (yards), and more bad weather
closing in, it was impossible for vehicles to get closer than five kms
(three miles) to the tunnel entrance. The few that made it risked being
blocked in as well.
A Reuters' team found one man -- alone, unconscious and covered in snow.
Bundled into their car, it took around an hour to revive him before he
was left in better hands.
"He is very lucky," said a doctor from Medecins sans
Frontieres who was trying to make his way to the tunnel, or as far as he
could get. "I think only a few more minutes ..."
((David Fox, Kabul Newsroom ++ 873 761 282391)
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