Global Courant 2023-04-12 04:00:02
A woman was pulled from a submerged jeep at Lake O’the Pines in Texas.The Marion County Sheriff’s Office
A Texas woman was found alive in a submerged Jeep after a local fisherman reported the vehicle.
She told police she spent hours in the jeep before being rescued and treated for hypothermia.
A survival expert said it’s rare to survive in a submerged car for long periods of time.
A fisherman in Texas called the police after discovering what appeared to be a jeep almost completely submerged in a lake. When authorities arrived, they found a woman still alive inside.
According to a press release, the call to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office came in Friday morning. A fisherman at Lake O’the Pines said he saw a black jeep underwater about 40 feet from a boat ramp.
Deputies arrived on the scene about 18 minutes later and decided it was too dangerous to wade into the water, Captain Chuck Rogers told Insider. They waited for the arrival of the towing service that had already been requested. The fisherman then took the crane worker in his boat to the jeep, which was secured with a hook and cable to pull it out of the water.
“It was at that time that they saw the woman,” Rogers said. “The fisherman and the demolition worker were able to help the woman out of the jeep. They put her in the boat and she was brought to shore.”
The woman was placed in a vehicle to help warm her up, Rogers said, adding that it was colder than usual that morning and had rained. He said it was unclear exactly how long the Jeep had been in the water, but the woman said it was at least a few hours.
Emergency services arrived and treated the woman for hypothermia. She was then transferred to a local hospital.
During their investigation, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office found that the woman had been reported missing by the Longview Police Department in Texas, about 25 miles south of where the Jeep was found.
Longview police told Insider they could not release information about the case, the woman’s identity or when she was reported missing.
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The details of the woman’s survival — how much water had flowed into the vehicle or how much air was still available — are unclear.
Cat Bigney, a survival expert who has taught at the Boulder Outdoor Survival School for decades, Insider told me it’s not unheard of for a person in a submerged vehicle to survive underwater for hours, though it’s rare.
She said a vehicle submerged in water is “an urgent survival situation” because brain death usually begins within four minutes of oxygen deprivation.
A black Jeep spotted from the shore of Lake O’ the Pines in Texas.The Marion County Sheriff’s Office
However, she said there have been cases where people have survived or been brought back to life for hours, especially when the water is cold. “This is a physiologically unusual situation that is still being studied,” Bigney said, citing possible explanations such as metabolic shutdown.
In 2013, a man survived underwater for three days in a submerged tugboat away from Nigeria. The man had found an air pocket and was able to survive until divers recovering the bodies found him. In 2015, a 18-month-old girl spent 14 hours in a flooded car and survived after an accident sent her mother’s vehicle into a river.
Bigney said when you find yourself in a situation like this the most important thing is to stay calm.
“React quickly, but don’t panic. You may only have a minute to get out, but you have to stay focused,” she said.
If you can, open the door. This is often not an option due to the pressure of the water, in which case you should open the window. If you’re having trouble rolling down the window, you may have to get creative to find something in the car to break it with.
“In the worst case, the car door can be opened many times when the car is fully submerged and pressure equilibrium is reached after the car is filled with water,” she said.
Watch out for broken glass when exiting the vehicle and don’t worry about grabbing belongings.
Just in case you can’t get out of the car, Bigney said you can use some sort of bag, such as a garbage bag, to catch any remaining air before the vehicle fills up.
“This will only help for a while,” she said, “but could make a difference.”
Do you have a news tip? Please contact this reporter at [email protected].
Read the original article Insider
