When you're lost and stuck in the wilderness, finding shelter from the elements is a key element of survival. However, one missing hiker's makeshift shelter actually caused rescuers to miss her entirely.
The incident happened last weekend. A 64-year-old hiker went missing at Oregon's Shore Acres State Park. In a news release, the U.S. Coast Guard detailed how they initially missed the hiker entirely. The unnamed woman had got separated from her party while she was foraging.
After the hiker went missing, Oregon police called the Coast Guard to help search for the individual "due to nightfall, rugged terrain, and the individual's lack of survival gear." They used a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging to search for the woman. Unfortunately, they didn't see anyone and returned to base.
Fortunately for the hiker, they managed to locate her on Sunday after searching all of Saturday. Shouts from the hiker alerted rescue crews to her location. "After some bushwhacking, the party located the missing woman who was showing signs of hypothermia and dehydration," read the Coast Guard's news release.
Shelter And A Search
They ended up making a fire and placing her in a hypothermic bag to help give her warmth. They then airlifted her to Bay Area Hospital in North Bend.
But why couldn't they find the woman initially? It all had to do with her makeshift shelter. She had chosen to hide underneath and became undetectable.
"It was later determined that the woman had sought shelter from underneath a log, and, therefore, was undetectable on the FLIR [forward looking infrared] camera," the Coast Guard said. "However, the woman began shouting for help after hearing the Coast Guard helicopters flying overhead, which eventually led the ground party to her."
It all goes to show you that while thermal imagining technologies are useful, they're not without their flaws. Quick thinking for shelter could have cost this hiker her life. Fortunately, this all ends well.
"The Coast Guard and our partner agencies here on the Oregon Coast routinely train together to ensure we can execute coordinated search and rescue missions whenever we're called upon," Cmdr. Jay Kircher, an operations officer at Coast Guard Air Station North Bend, said in a statement. "It's fantastic to see this teamwork in action and produce a successful outcome."
