2 dead after 4-member hunting party struck by blizzard in Nunavik, say police

Two people from Quaqtaq in northern Quebec are dead and two others have minor injuries from the cold after they went out hunting last week and got stuck in a blizzard, according to the Nunavik Police Service. 

A group of four had gone out on a hunting and fishing trip between Quaqtaq and Kangirsuk on Thursday, said the police service's deputy chief of operations, Jean-François Morin. 

On Monday, he said, the community's mayor called police to say they hadn't come home yet and to ask for help with the search. Charlie Tukkiapik, the mayor, told CBC News no one knew when the group had expected to be home. 

The search began that evening, and involved Canadian Rangers combing the land via snowmobile and charter planes that searched from the sky.

Morin said the body of a 49-year–old woman was found, and on Tuesday two other people were found "safe and sound" with minor injuries from the cold. The body of a 4th person, a 58-year-old man, was found on Wednesday, he said. 

Tukkiapik said the two surviving individuals are a young woman and her daughter. He said it was "miraculous" they survived the blizzard. "That's quite amazing … from my view," he said, adding that they were at home on Wednesday and hadn't been sent to the larger community of Kuujjuaq as initially expected. 

Morin said police believe the weather was a significant factor in what happened.

"There was a blizzard on Saturday and part of Sunday and at this point that we believe that, that was the main factor in … the people going missing and being delayed in their return," he said.

Morin said the weather was very cold, there was a lot of blowing snow, and that at one point the party's snowmobile got stuck. 

He encouraged anyone going out on the land to bring a satellite phone or a device that can transmit one's location, in case of an emergency.