A woman in her 40s who kayaked out into the wetlands of the Hudson Valley got lost and ended up spending the night on the frigid water after her cellphone died, authorities said Tuesday.
The boater, whose name has not been released, suffered hypothermia after the roughly six-hour middle-of-the-night ordeal, with her body temperature dropping to 93 degrees, officials said. She is expected to be OK.
The first call about the woman stuck in the Sullivan County wetlands area known as Bashakill, located in the town of Mamakating, came in just before 7 p.m. Monday, the deputy fire coordinator for the county said.
Firefighters responded and learned the woman was stuck out there, unable to make her way back. They say she had called 911 on her phone and they tried using boats to reach her, but the environment made access difficult.
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Mutual aid was called in, with fire departments responding with airboats and units from Rock Hill, Sparrowbush and Lumberland. The woman was rescued around 1 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.
The airboats themselves got stuck in the wetlands, thanks to darkness and bog-like conditions. It was just as difficult to get out of the muck as it was to reach her, they said.
State Police, a medivac chopper and a Westchester County police helicopter had tried to assist as well but were blocked by fog. Three firefighters then got stuck on one of the assisting airboats Tuesday morning. They eventually had to don wet suits to make it to shore, leaving emergency crews to deal with the stuck airboats into Tuesday afternoon.
