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Law Enforcement Rescues Stranded Hikers
01/21/10 - 08:38 PM
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Two hikers are safe tonight after being trapped by flood waters for several hours in Walton County. Rains tore through that county as well, washing out roads and dumping over three inches of rain on low lying areas.  It was one of these areas between the Woodlawn community and DeFuniak Springs that forced the two men into deep water.

“I thought he was gonna die up there in that tree…”  Justin Hansen and Ray Coles recount the hiking trip that they’ll never forget. Hansen says they woke up Thursday morning and realized that they were stuck: “It just rained a lot more than what we expected.  I mean…it rained about 14 hours straight on us. And our campsite got completely surrounded by water and to get out we had to swim through the water.”

..But the current was too strong for them. So they both grabbed hold of a tree:  “Ray was at a tree already. I climbed up a tree, exhausted. I mean, I could barely get up in the tree.”

Luckily Hansen had a cell phone and was able to call 911. Many law enforcement agencies responded. Freeport Fire Rescue brought out their Water Rescue Team to bring the hikers to safety.  Darin Culberson is the instructor. He says it was hard to piece together the information at first “…the call came out a couple of hours ago that there were hikers that had been stranded in the river. Details were sketchy. They came in a piece at a time until someone had phone contact with them.”

Freeport’s Water Rescue Team is specially trained for missions like this one.  Culberson says that “We started a team here locally just for this reason. We’ve just had too many rescues going on in the county with flood waters, with the gentleman dying last year when he ran off the road, so the need is here and we’ve been training for a little while and today we got to put it to work.”

Families anxiously awaited news near Eglin’s hiking train off 331. Of course they were overjoyed when they finally saw their loved ones back on dry land. Hansen and Coles say they’re thankful for those that helped save them:  “I just want to thank everybody and all their agencies that contributed to helping us. There was a lot to it and stuff. It was frustrating for everybody. It’s good to know that we actually have a government that cares enough about us to come out and save us.”

Walton County Fire Rescue, Freeport Fire Rescue, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission all aided with the rescue.