A frantic rescue effort Friday saved the life of a Vanderburgh County man who was washed away in floodwaters near Old Henderson Road in the southern part of the county.
Kenny Collins, 40, was trying to walk from his broken-down truck to dry land when the water swept him away, said Maj. Tom Wallis of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department. Collins and 39-year-old Steven Soell had been stranded on a dry "island" since the night before. "They got stuck in the backwater," Wallis said. "Basically, they panicked; they broke into a river camp to stay warm. This morning, they decided they were going to try to walk out."
The cold water and strong current quickly soured Soell on the idea.
Collins, however, pressed on and was swept off by the water. He spent three hours there, being pulled along by the current, before rescue workers found him wedged in a tree.
"It really is a miracle this man was found alive," Wallis said.
That miracle, rescue workers said, took the form of a red hat - the first thing spotted from a search helicopter.
That's how rescuers found Collins. He was wedged into the tree, chest-deep in water, and suffering from severe hypothermia. After hours in the water, his body temperature was about 90 degrees.
"(Rescuers) landed in an area nearby; I'm not sure where yet," said Perry Township Assistant Fire Chief Larry Krack. "And one of our people in a dry suit walked to the victim and brought him back to the LifeFlight (helicopter) and brought him out."
Collins was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center, where he was in serious condition Friday night. That was after an upgrade from critical condition upon his arrival.
He and Soell had come to the area, near the Duesner Road intersection,sometime the night before. They wanted to "check out the flooding," Soell said.
So they drove through waist-deep water for about half a mile south of Duesner. They barely made it through, Soell said.
"We decided we better not try to go no further," Soell said. "So we turned around, and the truck died."
The nearby river camp - one of four, but the only still above water was left unlocked, Soell said. So they took food and clothing, which Soell said he would replace, and slept as much as they could.
When morning came, Soell said, they were ready to get out of there.
"The (stretch of water) was about half a mile long, and about thigh deep," he said. "So we decided to put some trash bags around our legs and try to go through it."
After a few steps, Soell said, with the current tugging athis 210-pound frame, he decided to turn back.
Then the screams started. Collins had made it about halfway across before his legs were
knocked out from under him.
"I yelled, 'Kenny!' And he yelled, 'Steve!' And I knew he was in serious trouble," Soell said. "I really didn't know what to do, so I grabbed some logs,(and) I started a fire.
"I wanted to see if I could get a fire going and throw a tire on top to create some black smoke."
Before he could, though, Keith Kuester, a district chief for the Perry Township Fire Department, happened upon him.
"I was headed up-river to pick up a friend of mine, and a subject flagged me down over in some trees," Kuester said. "I was actually headed out to go hunting. It was just chance of luck that we found him, or we never would have known this other subject was in the water."
If Kuester had been a little later, Wallis said, Collins likely would not have made it - another 30 minutes probably would have finished him.
Collins spent Saturday evening in the hospital with Soell at his bedside.
"Without question, if LifeFlight had not been dispatched this would have turned out be a fatal," Wallis said. "They deserve all the credit available. They did a wonderful job."
As for the two involved, Soell said they learned their lesson.
"We went out there just to play in the water, and something got real serious in a hurry," he said. "I'll never do it again.
"I thought Oe I'd lost my buddy."