Snowed in
By MARC STEWARTStaff writer
Coeur d'Alene Fire Dept. comes to aid of couple who could not get out of home
COEUR d'ALENE -- Nestled against the side of a mountain overlooking Coeur d'Alene is a small home that Donald and Aletha Dunn built 47 years ago.
Inside it's cozy as can be, and it's easy to see why the Dunns picked this spot as their home. Picture windows give them a view of Coeur d'Alene that's arguably one of the best in all of North Idaho. In many ways, their little cottage is isolated from the outside world, surrounded only by natural beauty that's hard to come by these days.
"We've been married 65 years," Don Dunn said, before Aletha interrupted him to say, "We're working on 66."
They putter around the house, use ham radios, the Internet, and read Snowboarding magazines -- completely engrossed in their own little world. But their isolation has its price, sometimes terrifyingly so. At 87, Don is completely deaf and has trouble holding a train of thought for more than a minute or two. His wife, Aletha, 85, is partially blind, diabetic and takes important cardiac medication.
Days of heavy snow trapped them on their seven-acre property with no way out and their predicament caught the attention of Coeur d'Alene firefighters Wednesday morning when Don Dunn contacted them.
"We got a call from Don who said his wife missed a doctor's appointment and they were running out of medication," Coeur d'Alene Deputy Fire Chief Glenn Lauper said Wednesday. "The problem is Don couldn't really tell us where he was. He couldn't even tell us the color of his house."
Using his phone number, firefighters were able to get the address of the house.
Getting to it was another matter.
The steep access road to their house was covered in at least 3 feet of snow. They went as far as they could in an SUV, and then they hiked the rest of the way in.
Once they got there, Aletha and Don were fine and pleasantly surprised to see them.
"A neighbor fella was supposed to meet Don at the bottom of the hill to give us the medicines, but he never showed. Twice Don went down and he was never there," Aletha said. "We were getting a little concerned."
The paramedics and firefighters were more than a little concerned. They devised a plan to clear the half-mile road so the Dunns could be helped if needed. Using a snowblower, crews cut a narrow path to the front of the house from the bottom of the hill.
Then they implored Donald and Aletha Dunn to come with them. But they refused to come off the mountain.
"No, this is our home," Aletha said. "I need my oxygen at night," pointing to a machine that provides extra air to her lungs.
The Dunns are stocked up on food, but don't have any family living in the area to help them.
"Our children are in Kansas City," Aletha said.
By mid-afternoon Lauper had contacted neighbors and alerted them of the Dunns' situation.
"They're going to check on them every day," Lauper said. "People need to check on their neighbors, especially if we have another big storm."
The Dunns rely solely on electricity to heat their home. Neither Don nor Aletha seemed concerned if they lose power from a storm.
"We put on more clothes," Don said. "It's happened before."
Aletha proudly tells the tale that when the power went out in the famous 1996 ice storm, Don moved all the perishable food from the refrigerator out to a snow bank. He covered it with a blue tarp and had to warn Avista crews not to run over their food when they finally arrived to restore the power.
