Man found in sub-freezing weather two days after he went missing near Cumberland Falls
A man last seen Sunday afternoon near Cumberland Falls State Resort Park was found, after two nights in sub-freezing temperatures, when someone heard him calling for help Tuesday.
The missing man, Walter Dewayne Dale, 35, of Williamsburg, was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center after being rescued by boat, Kentucky State Police said.
“I don’t know how he lived, to be honest with you,” Trooper Scottie Pennington said in a telephone interview. “He was without his shoes for two days.”
Hikers found the man under a cliff, and he is “doing well considering hes (sic) been out in the elements since Sunday around 4pm,” the Eagle Sawyer Fire Department Volunteer Fire Department said in a Facebook post Tuesday night.
Pennington said Dale was in “really bad shape,” fatigued and “overwhelmed.”
“He was just so dehydrated,” he said.
While Pennington said he’s “not a medical doctor,” he said Dale was believed to have suffered severe frostbite.
Dale had been last seen on foot near the Eagle Falls trailhead at about 4 p.m. Sunday, and a Golden Alert was issued for him Monday, state police said in a news release. State police said at the time that Dale had a backpack with him when he was last seen.
Pennington said park rangers at Cumberland Falls had talked to Dale before he set out Sunday afternoon, and he told them he planned to hike on the trails.
When he never returned, Pennington said, “they started worrying about him” and contacted state police.
He said Dale is “one of those people that everybody knows,” and “everybody cares for him.”
Pennington said drones had been used in the search for Dale, and searchers had continued to look for him over slick, dangerous terrain. Dale’s shoes were found during the search, Pennington said.
After his rescue, Pennington said Dale “talked about crossing the creek, and his shoes got wet.”
“We don’t know if he was ever in the water,” Pennington said.
He noted that people suffering from hypothermia sometimes remove items of clothing (a phenomenon known as paradoxical undressing). “It’s kind of like your mind playing tricks on you,” he said.
At about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, state police said they got a call from the Eagle Sawyer Fire Department, saying that a civilian had called McCreary County 911 because “he could hear a male yelling for help near Eagle Falls.”
State police said a staging area had been set up at the site of what was once a theme park, Six Gun City, and the fire department had deployed a search and rescue team from there.
“After speaking with the Chief it was determined that the quickest route for evacuation would be by boat across the river,” state police said in the release.
A boat and team went to the beach at Cumberland Falls, and “swift water rescue deployed and brought” the man across the river, where state police said they confirmed he was the missing person.
Whitley County EMS took Dale to ”the Whitley County Airport where PHI air medical was waiting to transport him to the University of Tennessee,” state police said.
Pennington said Dale did not have camping gear with him.
Monday, four Asbury College students who had camped overnight on Courthouse Rock at the Red River Gorge were rescued by helicopter when they awoke to a blanket of snow and found it too treacherous to hike out.
Pennington said Cumberland Falls park rangers encouraged the public to “use common sense” when heading out, especially in extreme weather.
“Do it in a safe and smart manner,” he said.
