This is interesting. Luckily the family had a cellphone and were able to give a general location to a family member which initiated a search. Full details are in the link below.

Rescuers on Wednesday pulled a Texas family from an SUV that had been buried in a snowdrift on a rural New Mexico highway for nearly two days.
State police said rescuers had to dig through 4 feet of ice and snow to free the Higgins family, whose red GMC Yukon got stuck on U.S. 56 near Springer when a blizzard moved through the area Monday.

This is, in my mind, the single most likely survival scenario that I might be faced with. We got stuck several times during the big East coast blizzard last year and would have been stuck for the night if I hadn't been carrying a snow shovel. From the article it seems like they were pretty well equipped other than that.

While I can't fault them for trying to honk the horn to get help, it's no surprise it didn't work. Many drivers don't seem to be able to hear a honking horn at all, and those who do mostly won't be thinking of looking off the road for the source.

New Mexico and Arizona have been tough lately for cars stuck in the snow.

HJ

Getting stuck in the car in snow is also my number 1, mostly because over the years in the D.C. metro area, it has happened to me twice. Would have happened a third time, except I went to a hotel across the street from work and got a room.

Finally, the local governments are beginning to fess up to the fact that they can't handle a big snow storm. There is now an acronym for their recommendation. SNOW= STAY off the roads, NOT OUT in the WEATHER.

They also recommend having a "go-kit" of "emergency supplies" with you "at all times."

The local news report is pretty vague, but at least its a start:

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2673251

At a minimum,my vehicles will contain a sleeping bag, cook kit, food, water, some basic tools, and a good pair of walking shoes. That's 24/7/365. If traveling away from home any distance, that basic kit will be modified and enhanced, depending upon circumstances. I almost always throw in a fleece jacket and a parka, if they are not already part of my gear.

Wow! Very glad they made it and are going to be OK. The lack of oxygen is scare. Keep warm and hydrated are my top two priorities in cold weather. I never think of running out to breath except in terms of CO2 levels. I wonder if he got the tail pipe clear or if he continued to run the engine anyway.

Ditto that. I live in DC and last January's GW Parkway debacle is foremost in mind with my car preps. You can be close to home, in the middle of a metropolis, and find yourself in a dire situation.

My car preps came in very handy after Hurricane Irene when we were vacationing with friends in a house on a Chesapeake Bay tributary. Those friends have since all taken steps to be more prepared themselves.

As much as I like to think that my Jeep is unstoppable, the reality is that there's no such thing. I might be able to drive through 3 feet of snow, but I can't drive through a jackknifed tractor trailer. 4WD and aggressive tires might get me up an icy hill, but not an exit ramp clogged with other stuck vehicles. My shovel and winch might get me out of a snowdrift, but not an avalanche.

Civilization seems to have come at the price of self sufficiency for most. Sometimes it seems our government encourages that behavior, but I won't go on that rant. To some extent I can forgive the suburbanite who gets stuck overnight on a highway going home from work or visiting relatives. But in places where there's enough open land to not see any traffic for hours, let alone days, its hard for me to fathom a lack of emergency preparations. And I'm completely baffled that someone knowingly unprepared would put themselves in such a situation.

I imagine in the past this was common knowledge, passed from one generation to the next. In our transition from creators of work to consumers, that knowledge transfer and the knowledge itself seems to have largely disappeared. Maybe its another responsibility that we need to hand off to the education system? As part of driver's ed, maybe teach students the importance of keeping some basic survival items in their vehicle?

My kids went through driver's ed not so long ago. They don't even show kids how to check their oil, and forget about changing a tire. If it weren't for cell phones and AAA I don't know what most of today's young drivers would do if they got a flat tire. (Fortunately, all my kids, daughter included, have practiced changing tires and basic vehicle maintenance/repairs.)

And another part of me is slightly jealous that there's no places near me with that much open land.