Lost Hikers Rescues This Weekend

Four people, including two young children, were found Sunday night after being lost for nearly four hours in the dark with the temperature dropping.

Just after 6:30 Sunday night, Oconee County, South Carolina Rescue Crews deployed several search teams from the Burrell’s Ford area of the Chattooga River to search for the four family members, according the Oconee County Emergency Management Director Scott Krein.

“Two females, and a four year old and a six year old, had gotten turned around on the trail and were lost. They made the right choice, and when they realized they didn’t quite know where the were, they stopped and hunkered down. It had also gotten dark.”

The four were found around three and a half hours later, given food, water, and warm clothing, and then assisted back to the parking lot where the rest of their family was waiting.

Krein says that hikers who plan to go out later in the afternoon during these winter months need to make sure they are equipped with a contingency plan if they do get lost.

“It’s warm in the day but it gets cold at night. Sometimes, in the mountains, you have 15 to 20 degree temperature changes from the day to the night, sometimes more than that.”

A crew from North Carolina also assisted with the search.