People Who Have Their Priorities Straight
from Moscow Times

Cold beer going cheap. Tank and small military unit needed to get it out of fridge.

After cooling off in a watery grave for more than three weeks, 10 tons of beer have been rescued from beneath the ice of a Siberian river with the help of a T-72 tank, Emergency Situations Ministry troops and six divers. Its fridge, a KamAZ truck, was not so lucky.

One diver was injured in the operation Tuesday, but the beer is good enough to be sold, if at a discount, said the beer's producer, Omsk-based Rosor, which is perhaps best known for its Sibirskaya Korona label.

These people is Siberia, they are my kind of people. Reminds me of the flood in Houston, where a 16-wheeler was floating on Interstate 610. Cameras panned to the Bud Light truck and teenagers swimming out to pry open the truck and rescue the beer.

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Troops and Tank Struggle to Save Beer
By Kevin O'Flynn
Staff Writer

Cold beer going cheap. Tank and small military unit needed to get it out of fridge.

After cooling off in a watery grave for more than three weeks, 10 tons of beer have been rescued from beneath the ice of a Siberian river with the help of a T-72 tank, Emergency Situations Ministry troops and six divers. Its fridge, a KamAZ truck, was not so lucky.

One diver was injured in the operation Tuesday, but the beer is good enough to be sold, if at a discount, said the beer's producer, Omsk-based Rosor, which is perhaps best known for its Sibirskaya Korona label.

The beer ended up beneath the ice of the Irtysh River in the Omsk region after the truck delivering it sank while crossing a southern passage over the river just a few days before New Year's.

The KamAZ truck, whose manufacturer won the Paris-Dakar race through the African desert just a week ago, apparently found the going tougher in Siberia's freezing temperatures.

The driver and a passenger managed to escape as the ice gave way, but the vehicle and the beer sank to cold storage, where it remained for the next 24 days.

An official in the Omsk regional administration wrote off the accident as carelessness. "This often happens to people," he said.

Authorities quickly decided to raise the truck from the riverbed over fears that it could block shipping.

"It could have created an emergency when spring comes and we need to transport fuel, gravel, sand and coal to Kazakhstan," Pavel Shokin, the deputy head of Omsk's emergency department, said on NTV television.

So a huge operation was launched that attracted scores of spectators from nearby towns. Divers removed the 10 tons of beer and then a T-72 tank, without its cannon or ammunition, tried to pull the truck out of the river. The truck eased slowly out of the water but then the towing rope broke and it slipped back in.

A diver, Yury Rudanov, was hospitalized after his mask came off while swimming in the freezing water, Itar-Tass reported. He was in stable condition Wednesday.

Media reports said the operation to retrieve the truck was to continue Thursday -- although it was uncertain whether the truck was still under water.

A security guard with the Omsk administration said by telephone that he thought the truck had been pulled out. This could not be confirmed.

posted by prof_booty | 10:00 PM