Vancouver couple spends hours stuck in the West Hills snow before being rescued

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) - A Vancouver couple spent 12 hours stuck in the snow Monday after their car slid off the road in the West Hills.

Video the Silks took Monday morning shows the road washed in white, fallen trees everywhere, and in the middle of it all, their Prius stuck in the snow.

They had come down from Vancouver for dinner at a friend’s house Sunday night and little did they know this is where they’d end up.

“Susie joked about, ‘Oh stay the night. We have an extra room,’” Michael Silk said. “How silly, we’re only a half hour from home. We’ll just go home.”

It was around midnight when they left. Michael and Lisa Silk said they didn’t think it’d be a problem, but conditions got much worse on Skyline Boulevard and then their car slid off the road into the hillside. Tow trucks couldn’t get to them so they called 911 for help.

“They said, ‘no, everybody’s busy taking care of all sorts of problems, we don’t have anybody that can come get you, are you in a safe location?’” Lisa Silk said. “I’m like, ‘Well we sort of are, but these trees are breaking around us.’”

The dispatcher told them to shelter in place.

Later on, even a police officer couldn’t make it up to them given the conditions.

“We tried to sleep but we’re listening to the cracking of the trees and the snow hitting our car so hard that we thought it was somebody knocking at the window,” Lisa Silk said. “You’d wake up thinking oh they’re here to save us, but no it’s not.”

Finally, nearly 12 hours later, a Washington County Sheriff’s Office sergeant came to the rescue. Still, he couldn’t get to them, but he was at least close enough that they could walk to him.

“He waved and said, ‘Are you the Prius people?’” Michael Silk said. “I said, ‘yep, that’s us. That’s us, we’re here.’”

The Prius might be stuck there for a while, but the Silks are glad to be safe.

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